Tales From Pokémon World
by Aninika
Summary: Nos and Aurora set out to be the greatest Pokémon researchers around. Now only if they could work together. Raine just wants to be accepted, Ryu wants to be better than Red ever was, and Kurt just wants all the ladies. Original characters. Rated T. R&R
1. Two Scientists

**Update 3/25/12**

**Arg I should be shot for starting another story. Hello there Pokémon fans. I wanted to try and write a Pokémon Fan Fiction with an original crew. I changed quite a bit of things (since I'm only familiar with the games), so bear with me. The first two chapters are going to move fast time wise because the characters are important to the story but they're not the main characters. Once we hit the main storyline (which should be in chapter 3) the time that each chapter covers will be a lot slower. Also note that each chapter is its own short story in a sense with a beginning, middle, and end. This is something that I have never tried before, so each chapter is incredible in length.**

**Please let me know what you think.**

* * *

><p>~.::Tale of Two Scientists::.~<p>

"Your theories on the legendary Pokémon Suicune were absolutely astounding. Do you have any ideas on what you want to write for your graduate thesis?" He was a simple doctorate professor who knew not much of anything at that time, and the woman in which he was talking to had already dedicated herself to one sole idea.

"Why yes, I'm proposing to do hands on field research of the legendary Pokémon. There's a grant already in order for me to do research," She was determined and set forward in her goals. The woman with the incredibly lengthy brown hair and cerulean eyes walked with incredible determination.

He handed her back the document in his hands. "Right now all you have are theories; there's no fact to base any of this."

"This is why I need the grant. I can find facts to back up my theories." She argued- her eagerness never subsiding.

He placed his hand to his aged chin and rubbed it thoroughly feelings the stubbles from the morning shave come in. "Most grants will require you to get a research team. Really, your thesis shouldn't be so elaborate. Grants generally require facts to do research, but all you have are ideas. I'm not trying to shoot you down."

She clenched her teeth as they both stopped walking down the long corridor. They were right in front of his office door.

"I know of another student who is just as dedicated as you are to studying Suicune. His paper was also quite impressive. It's not a team, nor is it money for research, but perhaps you two can pool the money you have and spend your last remaining year doing field research. If you can agree to that, I will personally see that this be the only requirement for you both to graduate." He stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled out a piece of white scrap paper. With his other hand he clicked a pen and scribbled down a name and a number. "His name is Nos Crystalline. Get in contact with him by Friday and come and talk with me to get this done. The sooner you start the more information you can gather. You have less than a year to do this thesis; however, if what you have is astounding material you will find that you will receive that grant."

She took the paper from him and studied it. Working with another person bothered her. She liked to do this on her own and only saw this other person as an obstacle in her path. She frowned at the idea, but what choice did she have? The way her professor put it, she'd never receive that grant on her own. But she had dedicated her life to the research of Suicune, and she wasn't going to let such a small obstruction in her path stop her life goal.

"I'll see you Friday then," She said coolly as she placed the piece of scrap paper in her white coat's pocket. She then proceeded down the hall with her jacket and long brown hair flowing behind her.

* * *

><p>"Yeah, I'll see you later." A redheaded man said as he waved to his friends. He put his key into the door of his room. After opening it, he wandered over to the fridge attempting to grab a beer.<p>

"That is so unhealthy for you."

The unfamiliar voice startled the young man. He withdrew his hand from the cold beer and turned to the brunette woman standing behind him.

"How did you get in here? And who are you?" He wondered.

"Doctor Willow suggested you for some doctorate thesis work," She told him.

"So you broke into my room to talk to me?" He wondered scoffing at the situation. When he saw that she was serious he took to a chair, "Fine entertain me."

"My thesis is on the legendary Pokémon Suicune. Unlike Eusine, I plan on getting something actually accomplished; however, Dr. Willow doesn't think that I'll be able to get a grant on my own to do research, so he suggested you because you also have an interest in the Pokémon."

"I guess you could say that. I actually have an interest in all legendary Pokémon; not just one," He stated casually, "What exactly is the proposal?"

"I'm proposing field work. Dr. Willow said that if we agree to work together, he'll see that all we have to do is this 'proposal' per say to graduate," She spoke, "I have introduced theories on what I believe to be facts about Suicune. This is one step to your understanding of all legendary Pokémon. You do need to start somewhere."

"Let me see your proposal," He held out his hand.

She dug through her bag and pulled out the lengthy document and placed it in his hand. "You will find my research to be impeccable."

He quickly flipped through the document, "When does he want to know?"

"By Friday."

"I'll have it read by Thursday. Now may I know the name of the person that I may be working with?" He wondered.

"It's on the document. E-mail me by Thursday," She turned and walked out the door.

He sat there puzzled by the strange woman of which he had never seen prior. But he decided to brush it off. So then he determined that he really wanted that beer and got off the chair.

* * *

><p>"Dr. Willow!" She yelled as she moved as quickly as possible to catch up with him.<p>

"Oh Aurora. Did you get in contact with Crystalline?" He wondered so casually.

"I don't like being lied to, Dr. Willow," She stated angrily, "Nos Crystalline is not interested in studying Suicune."

They stood outside among smokers; Dr. Willow being one of them.

"Well he is interested in studying legendary Pokémon. Suicune is included." He inhaled deeply on his cigarette and then exhaled. "Would you not say?"

"My life is dedicated to studying just Suicune. He'll be distracted. I cannot tolerate that!"

He turned his aged face to her. "You will find that Crystalline does not lack dedication. He is one of my best students. I would not have recommended him if I felt that he imposed on your research."

She crossed her arms. "Still…"

"Perhaps you would like to read his proposal? I'm sure that it will help you make a decision."

"I'll be in contact with him on Thursday. I'll ask for it then."

"That only gives you matter of hours to read it."

"That's all I need," She smiled.

* * *

><p>"Is beer all you drink?" She wondered as she sat down across from him on the sofa.<p>

"Arceus dammit, how do you keep getting in here?" He wondered a bit startled, "And no it is not all I drink," He grabbed her proposal off the corner table and placed it down on his lap.

"What did you think?"

"I'm very interested in this. I'm in," He smiled.

She frowned as she grabbed it back from him. "I don't trust you nor do I know of your work ethic. You come highly recommend from Dr. Willow, so he obviously sees some potential in you, but I have yet to see you do more than just drink alcohol."

"Would my proposal make you feel more 'comforted'?" He wondered.

"I haven't decided yet, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt."

He dug through his drawer and then pulled out his document. "Here you are. You will see that I'm more interested in habitats and how the legendary Pokémon interact in those habitats and with each other. I think that I will be helpful for your project."

"We'll see," She stood up.

"I look forward to hearing from you Aurora Nightly."

She paused when he said that and then continued walking out his door.

He took a big gulp of his beer and sighed. She was going to be a tough one to crack.

* * *

><p>"You have until the week before graduation to submit your final thesis to me. I'll make sure to review it over that time. You two only have to submit one to me and then I'll personally, depending upon how good the thesis is, bring it to the next convention for us Pokémon professors. If all goes well, they'll have you both hold your own talk and depending upon how well that goes you will find that the grant will come easier to you than submitting a fact-less proposal." Dr. Willow clasped his fingers before his face and he looked carefully over the two adults before him. They were his top prized students, and he knew that their research would be the best he'd ever seen, but he doubted their compatibility to work with each other. Nos was open minded as long as the person wasn't outrageously difficult. Aurora, on the other hand, was outrageously difficult to work with. Her problem area was working with others.<p>

"I'm assuming that we need to furnish our own supplies," Nos said.

"We don't have money to give out to every eager student that wishes to do field work. Though if it makes you feel better you two are the only ones that I have agreed to let do field work for this thesis."

Nos and Aurora looked at each other with a mutual understanding, although neither of them knew how exactly they would work together. And when the weekend was over they were ready to head out on their mission.

"The Redwood family create advanced technology for us Pokémon professors. Generally we don't lend them out to trainees, as we like to call you, but this is a special case. These are straight from the top." Dr. Willow handed them two small, red cell phone looking objects.

They both examined them carefully.

"It's a tracker. Find a hair, dead skin, defecation, whatever, as long as it belongs to Suicune this will help you find it," He told them. "Now I'm sure you are both aware that Suicune doesn't take kindly to humans. It will run away from you. You'll be pursuing it for a year, so hopefully it'll get used to you. I hope you've accounted for this. This car here will take you to Slateport City there you will take a boat to Unova and journey to the last known location where Suicune was. Good luck to the both of you, and I look forward to your research."

Aurora crawled into the car and attempted to make herself comfortable. Nos got in a few minutes after.

"The last known location is a place called Rainbow Valley in the Unova region. I marked it here on the map. Apparently Suicune has been seen visiting here from time to time. Perhaps no other location has been visited by Suicune more than this one spot."

"Good place to start then," She closed her eyes.

"Though you might not get much for the research your looking for," He speculated while examining the map, "At any rate it'll take us a few days to get there."

"No flying Pokémon in your party?" She chuckled.

"Flying Pokémon can only fly to locations that they've been before, and I have never been to the Unova region."

"That didn't answer my question."

"No, I only have an Umbreon in my party." He stated. "I'm not much for training them."

She raised a brow when she heard this.

"How about you?"

"No flying Pokémon."

"What do you have in your party?" He wondered.

"An Espeon," She looked out the window.

He smiled, "How ironic."

* * *

><p>"It's a four day trip once we reach the docks." Nos stated as he folded the newspaper he was reading and placed it on his lap. "Hope you don't get seasick."<p>

She frowned, "Just because we're working together doesn't necessarily mean that I want to work with you. Quiet down and talk only when spoken to." She directed her cerulean eyes to the window.

Nos quietly picked up his black coffee mug and took a sip of his steaming drink. She was going to be a tough one to crack, and they were going to work together for a year so she should very well get used to at least talking with him. It didn't seem as though that was going to happen any time soon.

"Driver, how long until we get there?" She asked rather annoyed.

The driver in his black uniform and cab hat peered into the rectangular shaped rearview mirror and answered: "It's a full day trip to Slateport City."

"Sounds fun," Nos smiled.

"What did I say about talking?" She hissed.

He took a sip of his coffee. Placing the cup back into the holder, he looked cheerfully at the scowling brunette.

"We should get to know each other. I'll start."

She puffed her cheeks and let out a long exasperating sigh, "Are you ignoring me?"

"My parents never wanted me to go to college, but I went anyway. I'm rebellious, I know. When I graduated with my Bachelors, they didn't show. Same with my Masters and I'm sure it'll be the same with my Doctorate. They virtually stopped acknowledging my existence just because I wanted to go to college and do something with my life other than living paycheck to paycheck. My father is a construction worker and my mom stays at home and cleans. I don't have any siblings to speak of, so I really can't understand why they are behaving this way. It's not like I forced them to pay for college. I'm taking care of that on my own," He paused and looked at his hands. "Anyway what about you?"

She didn't acknowledge him.

"Hello? Pokémon World to Aurora!" He waved his hand in front of her face.

She swatted it away, "I have nothing to speak about. When we get to where we're going all we're going to speak about is research. Small talk is petty."

"Then I'll just talk about myself some more. Let's see… I'm 25 years old. Single. My birthday is in August. My favorite color is red. And I'm a great cook."

She rolled her eyes, "Are you good?"

"Hm?" He looked at her, "Did you say something?"

"If I tell you a little about myself will you leave me alone?"

"For a bit."

"Until Slateport City!"

"That's a long time."

"Deal with it."

"Fine, but then you have to speak with me until I'm satisfied."

She bit her bottom lip. "What if I want to sleep?"

"That's fine."

She coughed into her left fist, "Fine, I'll humor you for a bit."

He grinned stupidly, "Ok, so do you have any family?"

"Like?"

"Siblings? Parents? Grandparents? That sort."

She frowned and turned her pale head back to the transparent glass and sighed.

"I have an older and younger sister. Both my parents are alive and well; however, my grandparents have moved on."

"What are your sisters' names?" He looked at her utterly fascinated, and she found it to be brutally disgusting.

"Rosette and Kiara," She responded blandly. A bad taste arose in her mouth. It was distasteful speaking so informally with him. They didn't know each other at all.

"And what are they to you?"

"A nuisance, like you!" She gritted her teeth, but the man showed no reaction, "Why do you care?"

"Curious."

"Curiosity killed the Skitty."

"I'm not a Skitty."

She crossed her arms and slouched in her seat like a pouting five-year-old, "Why did you even agree to this expedition? There's no humanly way that we're ever going to get along."

"That's quite possibly true," He agreed while sipping on his coffee, "I figured it'd be better than whatever they'd have me do in a classroom all day. Realistically, we're as lucky as they come."

She raised a curious brow, "How do you suppose?"

"Dr. Willow says he never let's students do field work. I wouldn't miss out on this for the world."

"Well I hope you don't expect this to be some romantic excursion. There's no way in hell I'd fall for you."

"Never once crossed my mind. I believe I'd have a better chance finding a man sealed in ice, reviving him, and asking him to happily marry me before anything would ever happen between us."

"You'd best remember that too, Playboy," she remarked coldly.

* * *

><p>"Ah seawater! Don't you just love the scent of the ocean?" Nos pondered, hands on the onyx car door.<p>

Aurora didn't even respond to the question. She leaned her head out of the car first and then pushed her body out letting the wind captivate her long hair and trench coat.

"That's a very detesting look."

"I don't like this city…" She trailed off, keeping her eyes on the sea.

His wandering eyes looked around the Wingullbustling city. They then landed on the brunette.

"Why?"

"My sister lives here with her annoying boyfriend. I'd like to not see them if at all possible-"

"A woman with a sour look on her face. Must be Aurora." The snide remark came from a lumberjack-sized man wearing a plaid red and black shirt under jean overalls. The man had dark brown, scraggily hair. Following him was a Blaziken.

"Niles," Her eyes rolled.

"Pleasant as always," The man turned his head to look at the redhead, "Don't tell me this is your boyfriend!" He tilted his head back and laughed as hard and as loud as he could. "Never thought a man would be able to tolerate you!"

She frowned distastefully.

"I'm not her boyfriend," Nos replied noticing the resentment on Aurora's face.

"Smart man," Niles chuckled once again, "Well I'm guessing you're not here to visit your sister."

"I have no intentions of doing so," Aurora crossed her pale arms.

"I figured. You know, she'd really like to see you."

The woman sighed and turned away heading down the road- towards the city.

"I'm sorry, I'll go get her," Nos bowed.

"Don't worry about it. Blaziken and I will load your things on the boat. Do me a favor, don't tell her I'm taking you guys to Castelia City."

Nos nodded and headed after the woman who was walking very quickly, but still with her composure.

"Aurora!" Nos shouted running up to her.

"What do you want?" Her hands were firmly placed in the jacket's pocket as the wind blew her hair all over the place.

"How old is your sister?"

"What?

"Your sister, how old is she?"

"I heard what you said!"

He stared at her blankly.

"She's 19," She responded coolly. "Why are you prying? I refrain from interfering in your personal life."

"I'd say otherwise, but why don't you want to see your little sis?"

"It's nothing I want to talk with you about. Look just leave it be," She warned.

He decided to leave her be so he reached into his pocket and released his Umbreon. The Umbreon ran over to the water and began to splash in it.

"A shiny Umbreon? Astounding!" Aurora moved towards the creature and knelt before it.

He was actually surprised that she was taking interest in his Umbreon.

"The poor thing was abandoned by its pack two years back."

"That's how it works sometimes," She pet the wet Pokémon.

"His name is Blitz," Nos smiled as he knelt down next to her. "He's pretty good most of the time, but if I let him sit in the pokéball too long he'll rage worse than a pubescent teenage girl."

She chuckled though she didn't mean to and caught herself, "Well that's interesting."

He smiled, "Yeah, what about your Espeon? You should probably let it out once in a while."

She frowned, "Yeah, I guess." She reached into her pocket and pulled out her pokéball.

Espeon appeared out of the ball and ran into the water.

"Did you name it?" He wondered.

"Name what?"

"Your Espeon."

"No," She looked at the two Pokémon playing together, "Why bother?"

"It adds a level of intimacy between you and your Pokémon. It's how a trainer builds a stronger bond with their Pokémon."

"I'm not a trainer, I am a scientist," She boldly stated, "This is all I've ever wanted."

He watched her as she continued to pet his Pokémon. He knew nothing about her, and it seemed as though she wanted it that way. He couldn't understand why she was refusing to see her own flesh and blood. He would give anything to see his family again, but they refused to acknowledge his existence. Her decision was regrettable.

"Do you want kids?" He wondered.

The question took her by surprise, "Why would you ask that?"

He smiled, "I'm just trying to get a handle on the type of person you are. You seem to want nothing to do with other people, you even stray away from your own family. I don't know why you hold such resentment, but I'd figure that settling down and having a family is the last thing you'd ever strive for. Do you think that's healthy? Isolation might seem like the best option, for the time being, I guess I just don't want to see you regret your choices now later."

"What an astounding perspective," She joked, "You're right, I don't want a family, and I, honestly, cannot see me having children in the future. They'd only be interference. My life is dedicated to Suicune and Suicune only."

"I want a daughter," He said to her ignoring her really, "Most men want a son, but I'd love to have a little girl. Either way I'd love the kid."

She sighed, "Good for you."

He chuckled coyly, "What's your deal anyway? Why are you so…?"

"'So' what?" She glared into his green eyes.

"Socially awkward," He didn't mean to put it so bluntly, but he didn't feel like he had another option at that point.

She stood up casually, "Is the boat loaded?"

"Should be," He looked up at her.

"Then let's stop dawdling, we should be on the way to Unova as soon as possible," She was trying not to sound irritated, but she really couldn't help it. Though it was the obvious and blatant truth, it really hurt to hear from someone else that she was so socially awkward. Though it hurt, she had no intentions of changing herself.

He walked lazily behind her- watching their two Pokémon interact with each other. He didn't mean to be so rude to her, but how could he not? She wasn't making it pleasant for him to be with her at all. He looked at her Espeon and wondered if he should take the initiative to name it.

Boarding the boat went just as pleasant as Nos pictured it would. When Aurora found out that Niles would be their ferryman she flipped shit and decided that she didn't want to ride the boat after all. After spending nearly two hours trying to change her mind, she reluctantly agreed. And for three days of the trip she was as silent as possible.

"We're almost at Castelia City," Nos approached her at the bow of the ship.

She remained silent. All cozy in her long red sweater. Her arms rested on the railing.

"Ever been there before?"

"No, I hate cities. The sooner we land the sooner we get out of there. I just want to start our field work."

"Look, I'm sorry I called you anti-social," He was being sincere, but she never turned to look at him.

"That was three days ago, if that's really bothering you still then I think you should rethink being out here with me. I don't expect apologies from you and you should not expect any on my end. We're going to see each other every waking moment for the next year. We're going to hate each other often, and I'll live with that. You'd better get used to it now."

"And what if I don't want to?" he shouted, "You might be happy with that, but I am not. I like human interaction!"

"You're so whiny. Are you a man? Grow some balls," She snorted and walked off to the ship's cabin.

"This is going to be one long year," he said as he shoved his hands in his khaki pant pockets, exhaling deeply- leaving a stream of white smog.

* * *

><p>"Well good luck to the both of you. Just do me a favor… don't get yourselves killed," Niles told them in all seriousness.<p>

They were standing on one of the large docks that extended from Castelia City. The city was so big and bustling that the noise from chatter and traffic filled the air- even as far out as they were.

"Well thank you for the lift, Niles," Nos held out his hand and Niles gladly took it.

"Take care of my pain in the ass sister-in-law," His smile sincere.

Aurora had a surprised look on her face, "When did you marry my sister?"

"I personally sent you an invitation last year," He was surprised that she had not known. "I guess that explains why you never showed up."

The woman crossed her arms agitated, "Well congratulations. I'm sure my sister enjoys having the last name of Haverstine."

"Amusing…" He trailed off, "Anyway best of luck."

"Thanks," Nos smiled and the two scientists departed into the city with their supplies on their backs.

* * *

><p>"Ugh!" Aurora groaned as loud as she possibly could while dropping her enormous backpack on the ground, "Why didn't we arrange for transportation to Rainbow Valley?" She was already sick of wandering around and it had only been two days.<p>

Nos chuckled, "We're not going to be able to drive around while following Suicune. Just think, you're going to have very nice legs after a year."

She shot him a dirty glare, "I just want to do research, not trudge this shit from point A to point B and so on and so forth."

"Dr. Willow did say that it might take a long time before Suicune gets used to us following it around. You're going to have to become accustomed with that 'shit' as you so loving call it."

"You're intolerable!" She grimaced.

"Well you'll just have to get used to me too."

* * *

><p>"This is like trying to find hay in a needle stack," Nos grimaced as he thrust backward with his hands firmly placed on the small of his back to stretch and break it.<p>

The sun was beating on them vigorously as the two stood among the grassy land. Aurora was carefully and analytically going through the grass searching for any sign of Suicune's DNA. They were relieved to have reached Rainbow Valley after a few days of looking for it, but they were having a hard time finding anything.

"I believe the phrase is needle in a hay stack," She corrected brushing her pale fingers through the vibrant green grass.

"I know what the phrase is. Sifting through hay doesn't nearly describe the pain I am experiencing at this moment," He knelt back on the ground and sighed vigorously. They had been working for three days, only sleeping for a few hours at a time. He was tired and exhausted. His back was killing him and another smart remark from Aurora was going to send him plummeting into the nearby river.

"There has got to be some DNA around here somewhere," She stated as she stood up, formed fists and place the back of her hands on her hips.

The redheaded male reached into his pocket and pulled out his vibrating cell phone, "It's Dr. Willow."

"Probably calling to see how our research is coming. Not that we have any," She was mildly perturbed.

"Let me take this call. How about you start collecting water samples?" He suggested and then walked a bit away from her to answer the call.

"Well, I at least have to admit that the view is nice," She admitted while overlooking the river- deeper into the valley.

She picked up her water testing kit and looked off to find a path that would safely bring her to the riverbed. Screw jumping.

* * *

><p>After a short amount of time, Nos returned and made his way over to Aurora, who had set up her own mini lab next to the water.<p>

"Well I have some good news," He announced but she didn't respond. She was too busy studying the sample. He ignored it and continued, "Dr. Willow says there was a spotting of Suicune earlier this morning near Nimbasa City."

"Then we should get going," She stated as she moved away from the microscope.

"Well we should finish collecting samples here first then get moving. Before tomorrow."

She looked at him and sighed, "Fine, what is tomorrow?"

He blinked a couple times, "The Cottonee gathering."

"Right…" she turned back to the lab she had set up and began taking things apart and compiling them together. Nos joined her.

He continued to help until he came across a large grey book bound with woven string. He opened the cover and realized that there was nothing printed. So he flipped through a few more pages and noticed the same thing.

"Why don't you do something actually helpful?" She wondered as she stole the book from him.

"What is that for?"

She shoved the book in her grey bag that hung off her left shoulder and crossed her body.

"We need to keep notes somewhere, and I plan on using everything we discover now later after we graduate."

"Mhm…" He crossed his arms, "Do you really think I'll let you continue _our_ research without me?"

She laughed, "You honestly think that we'll continue working after this year? What part of 'I work alone' don't you understand?"

"My entire graduate thesis will be on Suicune, what do you think it'll look like if I don't continue research?"

"You're interested in habitats of legendary Pokémon, they'll understand that you've moved on from one Pokémon."

"And what if I don't want to? What if I want to continue researching Suicune?"

"I'm not having this discussion now. Talk to me again when we get close to finishing this thesis," she was completely uninterested with being around him any longer than she needed to be. And technically when their thesis was finished they would no longer have any need to be together.

In the past few days, he had helped her with nothing. There was nothing that he had actually done that had benefitted any more than anything she was doing. She was sure that she was not going to need his help after this year was over.

"I'll go pack the tent. It's going to take us a day or so to get to Nimbasa. Oh and Dr. Willow says he's going to make arrangements for us to stay with the Hi family. Apparently they have a new pokéball they'd like us to test out since they heard about our research."

"I'll think about it. Though taking a proper shower does sound nice," Aurora pushed her hand through her hair.

"Well don't ponder it too long," Nos told her, "Unless you want to be constantly smacked in the face by hormonal Cottonee."

"Then let's leave now. I don't want to walk in the dark."

* * *

><p>"Aurora, get down!" Nos called in a harsh whisper as he pushed against a nearby moss-covered log.<p>

"Ugh…what are you doing?" She wondered disgustedly in a normal voice.

He snagged her arm and pulled her to the ground, "What part of 'get down' don't you understand?"

"You're intolerable! Let go of me!"

He placed his hand over he mouth, "Be quiet!" He turned his head to look over the log.

She pushed his hand away from her face, "Do that again and I will bite you," She whispered in a harsh tone and then turned herself so that she could also peer over the log.

There, only a few feet away, stood Suicune casually standing in the grass watching a mixture of Beautifly and Butterfree Pokémon flutter around.

"Ah!" She was completely taken aback by what her eyes were seeing. She quickly reached into her bag and pulled out her big grey bound book. "I need a pencil," She ordered.

He raised a brow, "And you think I have one?"

"My backpack, there's one in there."

He unzipped the bag and started digging through it ferociously. He knew that if he didn't find her pencil that he'd have to listen to her complain for hours on end about how she didn't get to take notes on what she saw. After what seemed like an hour he pulled out the pencil and handed it to her.

The woman started jotting down notes like she was a computer analyzing lines of code. Every line was incredibly specific. She described in great detail what Suicune looked like, what it was doing, how it interacted with the other Pokémon in the area, even right down to how the wind moved the fur on its back.

"Should I set up camp?" He wondered, not really wanting to bother her since she was so focused.

"Yes, hopefully if we don't disturb it it'll stay," She stated.

They were only an hour outside of Nimbasa City, and they didn't actually expect to see Suicune this time. He savored the thought of going to stay with the Hi family in their luxurious mansion, but Suicune was more important than their sanitation.

"This is simply remarkable!" Aurora said to herself.

Nos placed his baggage on the warm grassy ground and unzipped the largest pocket. When he did his pokéball rolled out and unleashed Blitz. The Pokémon was furious with its master for leaving it in the ball for so long and so it ran off towards the legendary Pokémon.

Aurora gasped and turned angrily towards her redheaded companion.

"Blitz!" Nos called but tried not to be too loud.

The shiny Umbreon completely ignored its trainer and kept running towards the legendary Pokémon. Suicune turned its canine head towards the tiny black and blue Pokémon and examined it. It then slightly raised its head and saw the two humans peering over the log.

"Go back to your trainer," It told the Pokémon through telekinesis and then fled.

Aurora turned and punched Nos in the shoulder.

"You fucking idiot! Because of you Suicune fled!"

He rubbed his shoulder and watched as Blitz came running back towards him, "It's not my fault he jumped out of the pokéball. Don't blame me!"

She gritted her teeth, "Well maybe if you let him out more to play then he wouldn't have performed in such an unruly manner!"

"Excuse me? I let Blitz out more often then you let your Espeon out, so don't speak to me like that!"

"My Espeon doesn't force itself out of its pokéball!"

"Probably because it's horrified of you!"

She stood up and threw her book angrily at the ground, "Ugh! No matter what, it's your fault. He's your Pokémon!"

He got right into her face, "You keep calling me the intolerable, but it is you who is intolerable!"

"Oh good comeback!"

"I'm so sick of dealing with your attitude! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"You!" She screamed, "I hate seeing you, and I hate the fact that I have to work with you! I want you to go away and never return! Arceus, the only reason why I even accepted you as a partner was because I was going to be shot down otherwise!"

"So everything that could possibly go wrong will be my fault?"

"Yes! I would never make the mistakes that you have and you will!" She picked up the book and placed it back in her bag.

"Fine, since we're both stuck out here until the end of the year, I'll work solely with what I want to do and you can study Suicune all you want. The only time we'll have to speak is when we ask for the book," He was sick of fighting with her and he just didn't want to be around her any more than he had to.

She pursed her lips and wrinkled her forehead, "What about the tent?"

"Alright, so we'll have to deal with each other then."

She sighed heavily, "Just don't make me have to also redo your research."

He crossed his arms.

* * *

><p>"Welcome to our house!" A bubbly a dull, sandy blonde woman dressed in a long light blue gown greeted as she made her way to the two scientists standing in the grand lobby. "You must be Aurora Nightly and Nos Crystalline. Well welcome, Dr. Willow has told us so much about you two."<p>

They had traveled the hour into Nimbasa City since they didn't have any other choice at that point. Suicune was long gone and off to who knows where and the two hadn't found even a slight DNA sample from it, so they were at a dead-end until they heard word from someone about another sighting. Aurora was still angry at Nos, but they were trying their best to act civilized in front of their new host.

But Nos had found something odd about their host and tried not to make it seem obvious that he was glancing at her in-between looks. She seemed so young, like she could only be a few years older than him at most. He had figured people who were as famous as the Hi family would be far older than she was.

The two stepped into the giant mansion. The place was larger than either of them had imagined. It was far too large for just two people to thrive in. And it was nicely decorated too. It didn't seem like anything was left unfurnished.

"Dr. Willow tells us that you have an experimental pokéball you'd like us to test out," Aurora crossed her arms a bit irritated with the woman who was constantly touching her arm.

"Oh yes, let me bring you to the lab. We try to work inside our home as much as possible."

Max, the Hi family butler, stood nearby holding the door for them.

They began to head down a corridor that went underneath an enormous white Doric balcony. The two scientists were intrigued with the house and all of the decorations. Still neither of them knew how a woman so young could have acquired so much money.

"You two are so quiet," Mrs. Hi said after a while during their long walk, "I'm not used to it."

"I have a question," Nos said suddenly.

"Yes?" The kind woman wondered.

"Do you have any kids? This place looks too big for just you and your husband."

She just smiled kindly, "No, we don't have any. Right now it's just my husband and I and the people that take care of this house living here."

"Oh…" Nos trailed off completely amazed that it was just them and their staff. The house seemed like barely anyone lived in it.

Aurora had nothing to say. She was strictly uninterested in everything that was going on. She could have cared less about the Hi family, or even about their house, their work, or Nos' blatant boring interest in them, even if it was for the time being.

"We plan on having kids one day if that makes you feel better."

He raised up his hands in a nervous defense, "Oh no, I didn't mean it like that."

She giggled openly, "Oh I don't mind. What about you two?"

"Excuse me?" Aurora hissed, "What in the world makes you think that I am at all interested in this guy right here?"

"I'm sorry, I just thought…"

"Well don't make assumptions," She barked, "Just because my colleague is an imbecile, does not mean you should stoop down to his pompous level."

"Aurora!" Nos raised his voice, "Excuse us for a minute."

Mrs. Hi nodded slightly confused by what was going on.

Nos pulled Aurora into one of the side rooms and closed the door.

"What is wrong with you? Do not insult the Hi family!"

She crossed her arms, "She's impudent. I can't stand her fake façade."

"I don't think it's fake at all. I think you're reading too far into people again. Relax and just take it in. Try not to insult our host."

"Her measly existence is of no use to me."

"And what if we gain valuable research from their prototype? Will you still think she's invaluable then?"

She rolled her eyes and sighed, "I have a feeling that she is not the brains behind their money. She's probably just mooching off her husband. Worthless wench."

"Would you stop? We don't need to hear your personal opinion all the time," He yelled.

"She's going to get suspicious if we stay in here."

"Oh now you care about her feelings?"

"No, I care about my reputation."

"I think she realizes that there's nothing going on between us. You made that as outstandingly obvious as a big red dot in the center of a black and white room."

Aurora walked over to the door and opened it revealing the dull, sandy blonde woman staring at one of the portraits on the wall. She turned to look at the two come out of the room.

"Shall we continue?" she wondered casually.

"So what exactly is this prototype?" Aurora asked rudely.

"It's a master ball; the strongest pokéball to ever exist. We've tested it on several Pokémon, and it has always had a 100% capture rate without even harming the creature. What we expect from your experiment is to test it on a Legendary so that we can be certain that this ball is unflawed."

Nos' eyes widened, "You want us to use this on Suicune?"

"Yes," She answered, "Think of all the valuable research you will gain. No one has ever captured a Legendary before. You will be breaking through ground that has been untouched for all of time."

Aurora smugly smiled at Nos; she was on board. Nos, however, was hesitant. Perhaps the invaluable scientific research gained would be absolute and make them more famous than any researchers past, but they were about to agree to step into uncharted territory where their decisions could lead to highly unfavorable results. He didn't know if he wanted to accept the consequences. It was true that no one had captured a Legendary prior and perhaps that was for a reason that he was unaware, but an unnerving feeling welled within his body, and he was losing the desire to continue working with the Hi family.

"You've captured my intent interest. I would like to see this master ball."

"Why certainly. I had hoped that you two would be willing," The dull, sandy blonde woman smiled kindly and then led them further into the house and down some nicely carpeted wooded stairs. They continued to descend for a while before they reached a cold cement floor and a large metallic door with a palm reader on it.

The dull, sandy blonde placed her delicate hand to the surface of the palm reader, letting it scan her hand with its green light. It then beeped twice and the metal door opened. A haze of smoke came out of the lab and it seemed as though the lab were covered in nothing but smog from dry ice. The two scientists casually looked around the giant lab as the lady led them over to a table.

"This is my husband," Mrs. Hi announced.

The man picked up his head from a microscope and smiled at the two.

"Why hello there, I have heard a great deal of you two from Dr. Willow. He's a good friend of ours," He held out his hand for Nos to shake.

Nos examined it a bit and then took it, "We're pleased to meet you as well. You guys are renowned for your inventions."

"Well the Master Ball is my baby, but all the other pokéballs are her father's work," He showcased his wife.

Aurora frowned as a wide smile grew across Nos' face. Aurora was wrong and he enjoyed that.

"But you see the Master Ball was her idea."

"My father always wanted to create the strongest pokéball to ever exist. The only problem was he couldn't quite get it right. Then he met my husband here and said that he would like him to take on the family business."

"Yes, I had to denounce my family name and take on the Hi name, but it is a decision I have yet to regret." He wrapped his arm around his wife and kissed her right temple. "Our future children will have a bright future with the name Hi."

"Anyway, we'd be pleased to learn everything we can from this experiment you are about to perform," Mrs. Hi smiled, "It'll be the decision between letting the Master Ball on the market or keeping it for ourselves."

"Really?" Aurora wondered. She would think that people as rich as them would be greedy no matter the circumstances.

"Of course, we cannot allow Legendaries to be captured. That would offset the balance of the world, and we cannot have that. If this pokéball is indeed strong enough to capture a Legendary then just knowing that we created the strongest pokéball is more than enough for us," Mr. Hi told them.

"Of course you will be rewarded for your research. We will gladly pay for your final year of college, all of your equipment to be updated, and a Pokémon press conference."

Aurora folded her arms, "And what exactly do you want from us?"

"A copy of your field notes from the moment you throw the Master Ball until you release Suicune back into the wild," Mr. Hi said as he walked over to a table where a large metal briefcase was resting and picked it up. He walked back over to the two scientists and set the box down on the table next to them carefully.

He pulled a metal key out of his pocket and gently placed it into the lock of the briefcase and turned it clockwise. He then undid the metal clips and revealed the Master Ball. The top cover was completely purple with two giant pink circles the extruded out on the top of it. In the lower center, next to the white button, was a capital M. The man shrunk the pokéball down to its smaller size and handed it off to Nos.

"Please take good care of it," Mrs. Hi said while entwining her fingers together. "As of right now it is the only one we have because we don't want them to go into production yet."

"Don't worry, we'll take great care," Nos assured them.

"I'm sure the research that all of us gain from this experiment will be invaluable," She smiled.

"Well we'd better get to work," Aurora mentioned and Nos agreed.

* * *

><p>"Quick, while Suicune isn't paying attention!"<p>

Nos stood up from where they were hiding and enlarged the pokéball in his right hand and threw it at the legendary Pokémon.

Suicune never saw it coming and was quickly consumed by the ball. Aurora stood to her nervous feet, wondering if the pokéball was a good as the Hi family made it out to be.

It rocked back and forth, back and forth. The two scientists just stood there incredibly nervous. If the pokéball didn't work then there was absolutely no chance that Suicune would ever let them near it. If it did work then they'd have some temporary control, at least until the Pokémon forcibly released itself from the ball and tried to run away.

Finally the ball stood still and locked.

"Oh my Arceus, did we just capture Suicune?" Aurora asked in utter surprise to her colleague.

Nos stood there speechless, never in all his life had he pictured that he would capture a Legendary. He had always figured that it was impossible.

"I have to write this down!" She bent down and began to dig through her bag. She was shaking uncontrollably from sheer excitement.

"I-I'm going to get the Master Ball," Nos said after a bit. He walked nervously over to the small pokéball that contained the legendary creature. He had never imagined that human kind would one day create such a powerful device.

Aurora looked up at Nos, "This is certainly a momentous occasion. We should treat ourselves tonight."

He looked at her a bit confused, "I thought you didn't drink."

"I feel as though this is certainly an appropriate time!" She cheered, feeling in such a way that was incredibly unfamiliar.

"Well I can agree to that!" He smiled.

* * *

><p>"But remember to be hush hush. We can't let anyone know of our accomplishments, at least not yet. We have far too many tests to run. We should set some ground rules tonight."<p>

He frowned, "Like what?"

"We certainly should remain in our right mind. All we need is one of use to blabber incoherently to some pompous fool about our achievement and then find the Master Ball to have vanished. No getting plastered is what I am saying." She was like a stern mother.

"I can agree to that."

"Well congratulations you two, I certainly knew that you were capable of pulling this off," Dr. Willow stated certainly impressed with their thesis. "And whose idea was it to keep daily records of yourselves?"

"That would be mine, Dr. Willow," Nos said casually. "I figured it would be an excellent way to keep track of how we were doing both physically and emotionally. I think it kept us both on track, for the most part."

"I was rather hesitant on the idea at first, but when I reread what I wrote, I understood some things that I would have clearly bypassed had I not been recording all this." Still after all this time, she hated to praise Nos. But his decision was a fair one and it had helped her out in more ways than one. Not that she'd ever admit that to him.

"Well I personally didn't think you'd get past that stump once you captured Suicune in that Master Ball. By the way the Hi family sent a note to the department on how your field research helped them out remarkably. I think you can consider them long time friends."

"Their cooperation with us was certainly admirable, I'd actually love to work with them again," Aurora stated and then took a sip of hot tea that was sitting in a clay cup on Dr. Willow's cherry wood desk.

The two males in the room were completely astounded by the words that came out her mouth. Aurora actually liked working with someone?

Nos chuckled, "Yes, they certainly were helpful. But getting past that stump wasn't far too difficult. Suicune hadn't yet decided to trust us, so when we released it we were no closer than we were before the capture."

"It seems so. Though your experiment did bring some stress to the world."

"Well we never intended for that to happen," Aurora placed her cup back on the desk and crossed her right leg over her left. "However, now we understand the importance of letting legendary Pokémon be free."

Dr. Willow leaned back in his creaky leather chair and placed an aged hand to his grey chin, "All of the purified water turning to pure pollution, well that was something that I never anticipated."

"Once we saw what was happening, we quickly released it. Our research was valuable, but no one would benefit from dying," Nos stated.

"Indeed, it seems as though the Legendaries truly do keep our world in perfect balance," Aurora said as she placed her hands casually on her long black shirt with a slit that went up the right side.

"Well you two certainly passed. I am rather pleased with the research you have done, and I hope that you two will continue to work together."

"At first, I would have told you that I would rather jump off Mt. Coronet then continue working with Aurora, but once you get past her perfectionist exterior, she isn't all that bad to work with," Nos stated honestly.

"And Nos may be a pompous fool, but I did require his help quite often, and I guess I'd like to continue working with him."

"Well I think you have more than enough proof to acquire that grant you wanted so desperately at the beginning of the year."

"I've already applied for it and am waiting to hear back," Aurora smiled.

"So what are your plans now?" Their professor wondered.

"We will continue doing research," Nos stated, happy with his decision.

Aurora turned her pale face to Nos' and nodded in agreement when his eyes met hers. It was strange, the fact that they still didn't like each other all that much, but there was enough mutual understanding between the two of them that they believed that they could continue to work with each other.

Dr. Willow leaned forward in his seat. He flipped through a few more pages in the giant grey book and then set his reading glasses down on the desk.

"Keep in touch."

"Of course," Nos said as he took to his feet.

Aurora also stood to hers and gathered her materials including the book before her professor's eyes.

* * *

><p><strong>So how was that? Nos and Aurora are a bit boring for me to write about, and so I have a hard time with them. If only they weren't needed for the plot! Anyway, Dr. Willow isn't important for now so just know that he's their Pokémon professor, later on he will serve an actual purpose. I hope to continue this story (in fact I'm currently working well into chapter two) so please, please, please let me know what you think. I try to do a bit of research for all the stories I write because I don't like writing in the dark, if you know what I mean. I couldn't find the names of people who had actually created the technology for Pokémon professors or trainers (besides the professors that did create some) so I invented the Redwood family. The same goes for the pokéballs and Pokémon brand clothing, which the Hi's are responsible for. Also Hi is pronounced he, they're of Japanese origin (if Japanese existed in this world).<strong>

**Also, Nos is ginger... but we can all LOL about that later... jk**

**-An1n1ka.**


	2. Life and Death

**Update 3/25/12**

**I'm back again with Chapter two. Thank you to the one reviewer and the many people that took the time to look at this story. I'm sorry the description for this story sucks, but I'm having an incredibly hard time coming up with one. This is the last chapter before we hit the main storyline, but there are going to be other chapters with flashbacks (in fact I believe four is going to be a flash back chapter). Anyway, I'm going to keep working with this story and I hope those of you who are reading it enjoy it.**

**Anyway a brief warning for a very non descriptive sex scene. Figured I'd let you know. Oh yes and eventually I will be pumping up the rating on this story, but it'll be a long time before that happens.**

* * *

><p>~.::Tale of Life and Death::.~<p>

"Oh Arceus! There was a mudslide," Nos placed his muddy hands on his drench white tank and wiped them off. The disappointment was overwhelming due to the fact that they had trudged their way almost back to their camp through mounds of mud and floodwater.

"You've got to be kidding me, this path is blocked as well?" Aurora gritted her teeth as she unintentionally dropped her heavy backpack in a giant muddy puddle that they were standing in.

"The mud isn't very stable," He stated as he stuck his hands in it in an attempt to climb the mud pile. "Looks like we should find someplace dry to stay for the night."

Aurora rolled her cerulean eyes. All she wanted to do was crawl into her warm sleeping bag and pretend that this day had never happened.

It had been eight years since they had graduated from college to pursue their dream of learning everything they could about the legendary Pokémon Suicune. They had wandered off the path a bit to explore some of the surrounding area as part of an experiment that Nos was conducting. It was a trip that took up most of their day and now it was getting late, they could see the sun setting in the distance, and their path was blocked from every angle to get back to camp, and where Suicune was residing. The two scientists were incredibly drenched and tired from trudging through plant life all day. And considering that the day had been overcast for the most part didn't help them at all. And then the rainstorm was only making it that much worse.

"Where do you propose we stay for the night?" She wondered getting mud everywhere.

"We should find a cave, at least it will be dry," that was certain.

"Yes, because I feel so comfortable sleeping with Zubat," She sarcastically remarked.

"Do you have a better idea?" He wondered.

She puffed out her cheeks, "Our tent."

He raised a brow.

"Yeah, I surrender. Lead us to the cave oh redheaded one."

"Haha…" He picked up her bag and headed towards a nearby foothill.

There they found a small cave next to a small stream. Whether this stream existed before the storm was yet to be determined, but in the mean time they had found a place to stay for the night.

It wasn't a large cave; a small distance inward and they had reached the back. However, there was more than enough room inside for the two of them to stay comfortably.

Nos plopped Aurora's backpack on the floor of the cave and sat down. Water dripped from every part of his body. He watched outside the cave as water heavily fell from the heavens. Aurora struggled to climb into the cave, but she eventually got herself in. She then lay on the cool floor as a puddle formed around her drenched body.

"Considering all the things we've been through in the past nine years, this isn't all that bad," Nos turned his head and smiled to Aurora who forcibly sat herself up.

"What are you talking about?" She gave him a hard look, "Never have we had to stay anywhere other than our tent. This is the worst!"

"It's not that bad."

"Oh drop your stupid optimistic attitude, I don't want to hear it!" She hollered, "I'm drenched and cold. I didn't even consider packing a change of clothing or blankets or anything!"

"Oh stop pouting, it's unbecoming of you."

She balled up her drenched jacket and chucked it at his head. "I'll whine if I want too!"

He chuckled, "I'm waiting for you to call me intolerable."

"Oh shut it, you pompous fool!"

There was a brief amount of silence between the two of them before Nos turned his drenched head to her. She was staring out of the cave with a sour look on her pale face. It was interesting how she was out in the sun all the time, but the color of her skin never once changed.

"Do you ever think what life would be like if we had never decided to continue pursuing this as a career?" He wondered.

She rolled her eyes, "No."

"C'mon, humor me."

"Why? I've told you before that this is all I've ever wanted to do."

"I'd certainly be married by now."

"Good for you," She responded disgusted. How could he only think of marriage?

"Well, even after all these years, I've never given up on the thought of having a family."

"Then you should never have offered to continue working with me. You know that in this line of work, neither of us have time to just stop what we are doing and settle down. A family would be a major distraction and a commitment that would cause you to choose between your family and your work. Being free, as you and I are, means that there is nothing tying us down to one location which is why we can continue doing what we are doing."

"I'm aware of that… it's just… never mind," he sighed. No matter what he was going to say it was never going to be of any great importance to her.

"Plus kids are messy and they'd just get in the way," she added. She could have cared less about his feelings on the subject.

"I have a rather touchy question to ask you," He said to her knowing that she probably didn't care what the question was, she just wasn't going to want to respond to it, as with every question not having to do with work.

"What?"

"Have you ever had sex?"

She placed her chin on her left palm and stared at him with a bored look on her face, "Your questions get more and more preposterous every time you ask one."

"I'll take that as a no then," He said as he was writing in his journal.

"Are you seriously writing that in your journal?" She yelled as she quickly moved towards him to see exactly what he was writing.

"What?" He wondered as he hugged the journal close to his drenched body.

She snagged it from him and began reading it, "Why would you write this? These entries are supposed to be about you not me!"

"Not true, they're about anything pertaining to the person writing them," He took it back. "Don't read too far into it. Plus no one is going to read these but us."

"Well when we die and then someone decides to continue our research, they will read these!"

"So what? You'll be dead."

"My reputation!" She shouted.

He laughed, "I don't think I've ever seen you act so much like… hm how should I put this?"

"A woman? 'Cuz that is what I am!" She bit her lower lip, how could he be so rude?

"Well yes, but not only that but I've never seen you so open about your feelings." She truly was an astounding creature. He could surely spend as much time studying her as he had spent on Suicune and still know nothing about her.

"Ugh, I'm sorry, I'm just uncomfortable sleeping in a cave. I miss the tent!" She whined, "What if we can't make it back to the tent, or what if the tent is gone? I can't live like this!"

"Sheesh, calm down. I like angry Aurora better than you freaking out."

She lay sprawled out on the cave floor, "I can't do this…"

He crawled over to her, "Hey, don't be like that. This is just a small road bump in our fieldwork. It'll all be over soon." Consoling her felt weird.

"I'm going to go crazy at this rate!" She said as she picked her tear filled face and moved her body so that she was pressed against his in a sitting position.

Nos' face turned bright red. This was very uncharacteristic for her, and he wasn't quite sure what to do.

"It's just one night."

"What if it's not just one night? What if we're stuck in here forever! I can't handle this." Her hands clenched onto his tank and she nuzzled her face in his chest.

He had never realized that she had such unrealistic fears. He didn't even know what to categorize this fear as. A fear of not being able to return to work? Perhaps that was the right name for it.

"We're going to die here!" She cried.

"Woman, get a hold of yourself! Arceus, what's wrong with you?" He shook her. "Are your hair bands on too tight or something?"

She pulled the one holding up her hair out and threw it on the cave floor, "There, does that make you feel better?"

"Not really…" He sighed.

"Why are you so mean to me?" Her cerulean eyes formed tears as she stared at him with eminent sadness.

He rolled his. This was absolutely ridiculous.

"Are you serious right now? You're a huge ball of emotions that I don't know how to handle. Relax!"

She just started bawling.

He sighed hating to have to do what he was about to, but he took his right hand and slapped Aurora as hard as he could across the face.

She slowly brought her left hand up to her swollen red cheek and rubbed it gently. She stared off in the distance with disbelief that he had just done that.

He sighed with relief. She wasn't crying anymore.

She turned her face to him and narrowed her eyes before pouncing on him and slamming his body to the cave floor.

"You fucking bastard! How dare you slap me?" She screamed as she pounded his chest with her fists.

After a bit of a struggle he managed to grab onto her wrists and flipped her onto the ground.

"Stop it! That hurts!"

"Yeah, well so does my face!"

"You're driving me insane, Aurora!"

She stopped struggling, "Fine, what do you suggest I do?"

"Go to sleep!"

"Do you really think I can sleep in this cave?"

He sighed, "Just try."

"It's not going to happen. I'm drenched, this cave is cold, I have nothing comfortable to sleep on, yeah this isn't happening."

He crawled off of her, "You're annoying."

"Well you're no knight in shining armor yourself!" She sat up and rubbed her wrists. "Jerk!" She mumbled under her breath.

* * *

><p>He wasn't going to deal with her while she was having mood swings. Dealing with her on a normal basis was bad enough for him. This was brutal and agonizing.<p>

She sat in her dismal corner of the cave. Dark circles had begun to appear under her eyes, but still every bit of her will refused to let her rest.

Looking at her, however, made him feel bad. So Nos made his way over and plopped himself down beside her.

"Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have slapped you."

"No, I'm sorry…" She turned her bloodshot tired eyes to him. "It's an irrational fear, I understand the reason behind your methods. It worked."

He was completely taken aback by the fact that she, of all people, was apologizing to him. In the nine years that they had been together, never once had she apologized to him.

"Look, you should get some sleep," She said as her tired eyes stared into his.

He shook his head, "It wouldn't be right if I got some sleep and you didn't. I'll stay up too."

"You know I'd never do that for you."

"True, but I don't plan on letting irrational fears keep me up all night."

"Well thanks," She giggled like a schoolgirl with a crush. Perhaps it was because she was super tired, but whatever it was it felt weird and at that time it didn't bother her so much. Having Nos there to comfort her was exactly what she needed.

She leaned her head on his right shoulder and closed her eyes. He blushed slightly. Never before had he thought of Aurora this way.

And what he did next was certainly going to be regrettable. He turned his head and brushed his lips against her forehead. She could feel his warm breath on her skin and raised her head so that they both gazed into each other's eyes. He searched hers to see if what he was going to do next would be instantly regrettable, but it didn't seem so. He moved his lips closer to hers until they captivated them.

He couldn't be certain as to what had possessed him to want to do this, but for the moment it felt like the right thing to do. He wasn't alone. She wasn't at all certain what had possessed her to allow him to kiss her of all things, but she didn't have the will to push him away and so they sat there for a bit continuing to make out. He then slowly pushed her to the floor of the cave and crawled on top of her and she let him without a fight. And this continued as he removed her clothes. And she even removed his. He then spread her legs and inserted himself in and began to thrust. Whatever had possessed either of them continued for a while until everything was resolved and the two fell to sleep.

* * *

><p>Aurora woke in morning, finding her body completely unclothed and Nos to be nowhere in sight. She quickly gathered her clothing and placed them back on. She was frustrated and angry. How could he have taken advantage of her like that?<p>

Nos made his way back over to the cave with some fruit and berries that he had gathered while he was away. It seemed to him that the small stream from the night before was not a permanent part of the land. He climbed back up to the cave to see a very pissed off Aurora.

"Don't you dare yell at me for last night. That was as much your fault as it was mine," He said casually as he placed the food in his hands on the cave floor.

"You took advantage of me!" She yelled.

"Did not," He sighed. "It was a moment of weakness for the both of us."

"I don't feel comfortable around you!"

He rolled his green eyes, "Yeah, yeah, believe me it won't happen again."

"Rapist!"

"Alright, just stop you consented so get over it!" He barked. "I will not be unjustly accused of something when you were as far in the wrong as I was. You can't blame me for your lapse in judgment."

She pointed at him, "Oh yes I can. You'd better lawyer up, fucker!"

"Like you'd actually leave your research long enough to sue me. I know you better than that."

She sat down angrily. He was right. Taking him to court would take far too long and interfere with her work ethic.

"Touch me again and I'll kill you," She threatened.

"Well it's good to see the Aurora that pisses me off is back. I've missed you," He laughed and then bit into one of the fruits that he had found.

And for a month everything was hunky dory between the two scientists, until one day when Aurora woke up from the sudden need to vomit everywhere.

She bolted out of the tent and made it over to a ditch before she began vomiting uncontrollably. Her sudden dashing out from the tent awoke the sleeping redhead. His eyes attempted to adjust to the bright light coming in from the opening of the tent. He had horrible bed head and also hadn't a clue as to what was happening.

Aurora stumbled back into the tent after 10 or so minutes looking even more pale than usual.

"What's wrong?" He wondered.

"I must've ate something really bad last night," She said as she crawled onto her sleeping bag.

"What did you eat?"

"I'm too tired to think about it. I'll check my journal later." She crawled under the covers and curled up to sleep.

"Well if you're not better by tomorrow you should go see a doctor. You could have salmonella," He warned, but she was already fast asleep.

* * *

><p>"Oh you are so dead!" Aurora was in a particularly fowl mood considering that she had spent a good chunk of her day away from her research and at a doctor's office of all places.<p>

He didn't even look up from what he was doing, "And what have I done now?"

"I'm fucking pregnant!" She shouted.

That caught his attention. "You're what?"

"Did I stutter?" She was pissed.

"Well that's incredible!" He had a dumb smile upon his face.

"This is all part of some stupid ideal you have isn't it? Well I'm not going to be part of your idealistic fantasy. I'm getting an abortion!"

"What? No, you can't do that!"

"It's my body and I'll do what I want. I told you that I don't want kids!"

"What if it's just my kid?" He asked. "The child will be raised as mine and have nothing to do with you. That way no one will think that you have a child."

She frowned, "You honestly think I'm going to go for that? You must be insane! I'm carrying this child, how will people not know that it is mine?"

"Just look, we can keep the fact that you're pregnant on the down low. No one will have to know. Please Aurora, don't abort this child."

She frowned distastefully at his begging. Had a child meant so much to him then he should have found someone willing to carry it. Aurora wanted nothing to do with the thing, as she so lovingly referred to it, growing in her stomach.

"There's no way in hell that you're going to convince me to keep this 'thing'," She crossed her arms and made an angry sort of pouting face.

"Please!" He groveled.

She rolled her eyes, "Just tell me that the night we spent in the cave was not meant to have this outcome."

"I told you already that it wasn't supposed to happen. We both regret that night, but I think this child should have a chance to live."

"Tsk. Get up. I'll keep the stupid thing if you'll stop acting like a blabbering idiot," She groaned.

* * *

><p>"Aurora, what have you consumed today?" Nos asked a bit frustrated as he made his way out of their blue and grey, pitched tent. His face was wrinkled, as it had been lately, since dealing with Aurora's stubbornness. In due time, they would become permanent.<p>

The longhaired brunette stood nearby at a table with a microscope on it. Her face was pressed to the lens while she was jotting down notes with her right hand on a yellow, ruled tablet, at the same time.

"Aurora!" He raised his voice and changed the tone to angry.

She pushed one of the strips of hair loose from her ponytail behind her ear. Her eyes made contact with his, and her mouth instantly turned to a grueling frown.

"What do you want?" How dare he think to interrupt her work!

"What have you consumed today?"

She sighed disgusted and went back to her work.

"Check my journal!" She pointed towards it sitting in her bag.

He walked over steadfast and snatched the black, spiral ringed journal. He opened it and quickly, and thoroughly, flipped through the journal until he reached the entry, or rather lack thereof entry.

"There's nothing written!" He slammed it down on the table once again capturing her attention.

"Guess I haven't eaten then," She replied in a very sarcastic voice.

"You're eight months pregnant and you're appearance dictates that you are only three at most! You need to partake more!"

"Well, it's your fault I'm in this current state," She grumbled while placing a firm hand on her swollen stomach. "Do you even understand how unnecessarily difficult it is for me to do anything?"

"Eat!" He shouted.

She grumbled and made her way over to the cooler and slowly squatted down picking up something to eat. She quickly shoved it in her mouth, chewed, and swallowed before standing back up and facing the man that she grew to detest more than she originally had when they first met.

"Happy?"

He gave her a long hard stare and then turned off to do some research. She sighed desperate to remove him from her very essence, but that was impractical. As much as she loathed him, murder just wasn't in her.

* * *

><p>A week later, Nos wandered by the table that Aurora commonly worked at. He noticed something peculiar and picked up a white envelope sitting atop some cluttered papers. It was sealed and the postmarked date was over a year. He tore the envelope removing the card and picture from within.<p>

"Huh," He turned to his companion with an intense look upon his face. His eyes were fixated on the card in hand. "It seems the Hi's had a son. They even sent a picture of the little tike."

He looked up from the letter with a slight chuckle and noticed Aurora clutching her stomach and bent over in pain. Her face was stained with sweat and her eyes could only tell of her excruciating pain.

"Either get me to the fucking hospital or get me medication right fucking now!" She practically screamed at him.

"We're nowhere near a hospital!" The redhead was doing his best to try and maintain his coolness, but he was failing at a rapid pace.

"Then I hope to Arceus that you know how to deliver," She managed to threaten before screaming in pain.

He recalled from college how to deliver Miltank and Pokémon of the like and for now that was his best bet. He walked her over to the nearby stream, remembering that water births are easier on the mother, and had her place the lower half of herself in. Then came the actual challenge of delivering his child…

* * *

><p>A wide smile grew across Nos' face as he held the bloody child in his olive arms.<p>

"It's a little girl," he cheered overwhelmed by the fact that he was holding his daughter within his grasp.

"I'm…happy…for…you…" Aurora said as her body collapsed on the ground. She was absolutely drained.

The little girl was bawling in her father's arms. He looked around for something to clean her off with and also something to cut the umbilical cord.

"Here, hold her for a second," Without even given her a chance to reject, Nos placed the tiny baby within Aurora's clutches. He then made his way over to the tent and found an unused white towel and knife.

"Take this blabbering ball away from me!" Aurora ordered slowly regaining her strength.

"Give me a second," He muttered as he moved into the water, back between the brunette's legs. The knife was in his mouth and the towel draped over his shoulder.

He took the knife firmly in his right hand and the umbilical cord in his left. He followed it towards the child's naval and severed it two inches from the body.

"Hand me your hair tie!" He ordered his hand closing off the umbilical cord.

She groaned and pulled it out of her hair. After snagging it from her, he tied off the tip and then took the child from Aurora.

"Aren't you going to help me?" She wondered as he made his way out of the water.

"Yeah give me a minute," he told her as he softly cleaned the little girl whose eyes were currently blue. "I'm going to call you Raine."

The small infant moved her tiny hand and snagged her father's finger. He placed her in a small baby basket that he had picked up a few months ago and then returned to the exhausted brunette.

Completely exasperated, the brunette female pushed herself off the ground and managed to move to shore. He helped her stand to her feet.

"The placenta is floating down the river. In case you want to cherish that too,"

"That's gross," He told her.

Together they had reached the tent. She heaved a sigh and glared at him. "It's part of the package."

"Haha," sarcasm.

* * *

><p>"If she keeps me awake one more night I will personally feed her to the ravaging Mightyena," The aggravated brunette was just that: aggravated. "My Arceus, they're quieter than she is!"<p>

It had been a full week since the child was born and her incessant screaming and crying were pushing Aurora over the edge. There was only so much she could handle and this was far beyond her.

"It's your fault that she's horribly sick!" Nos yelled which wasn't helping the fact that Raine was already screaming and crying. "You didn't take care of yourself while you were pregnant and now she's incredibly weak and sick. I'm taking her to the hospital."

"Oh thank Arceus! If I had to listen to that-," She pointed ever so rudely, "-one more night I'd push you both off a cliff!"

Suicune looked over at the child as it lay comfortably atop a nearby hill. It decided not to bother with the bickering family.

It was true that Raine had been a very sick child from the get go. She was born only a few weeks premature, but she was severely underweight. She was a tiny little thing, fitting her entire body within both her father's hands. Her first night outside her mother's womb was a tough one for her. She instantly came down with a cough and after a week it had yet to subside and this bothered Nos. Aurora could have cared less.

The little girl looked a lot like her mother. She had Aurora's brown hair, nose, and pale skin. After a few days, her eyes turned green like her father's and she had some of his facial features.

"Come on, Raine. We're going to the hospital while mean old mommy stays here and does research," Nos babbled.

"She is _not_ calling me 'mommy'!" Aurora yelled.

"Fine then, mean old Aurora," He corrected.

"Well someone has to stay here and watch Suicune!" She tried to defend. Not like she really needed a reason; she didn't want to be a part of that child's life.

Suicune turned its enormous canine head towards them as if to say: "No, I don't," but it didn't want to intrude. Instead, Suicune lay its head back down.

Nos rolled his green eyes, "Whatever, we're off."

"Bye!" She said relieved. Now that the annoying child and Nos were gone, she might actually get some work done.

* * *

><p>A few hours later, Nos returned looking a bit worried. Aurora, on the other hand, was standing in front of three Petri dishes that contained water samples. She had spaced them out on the ground and stood there with her hands on her hips contemplating something.<p>

"They want to monitor her for the next month, so she needs to stay in the hospital. The only good thing that's coming out of this is that I finally registered her, so now she has a birth certificate," He scratched the back of his head as he wandered next to the unfavorable brunette.

"And the fact that I'll actually get some sleep, get work done, and keep my sanity," she reminded him.

"It's only for a month. Anyway, what are you doing?" He wondered.

She looked at him with a bored stare, "These are three water samples. Two are from the past two places we visited and the last one is from the river. I'm not really sure what I'm trying to prove right now, but maybe, somehow, they can tell us where Suicune's next stop will be."

He placed his hand on his shaven chin, "I think you need more water samples."

"Yeah, I figured that…" She paused as she looked at the three Petri dishes. "Anyway, I've determined that Suicune is going to be on the move soon."

"…what about Raine?"

"What about her? Leave her in the hospital; it's your best bet. We'll pack up and follow Suicune then in a month's time you can pick her up."

"And what are they going to think? I won't visit my daughter for an entire month, but I'll pick her up when it's all over? I can't do that!" He told her, "I'll stay here."

"That's moronic. We have plenty of research to do, and I can't do it on my own!" She stabbed her finger into his chest.

"I'm not letting our research get in the way of our daughter!"

"_Your_ daughter! She's not mine!"

"Whatever, you'll just have to go on without me!"

"See, this is why I said that having a family could only cause problems. She's of no use to us! She can't do work, nothing! All she does is cry, babble, and poop!"

"I'm not having this argument with you, Aurora! I'm staying put!"

She narrowed her eyes, "Well have fun trying to find some place to stay because I'm taking the tent!"

"Well, in case you've forgotten, I manage our money! I'll just get a hotel!"

"Oh good luck with that," she rolled her eyes, "I guarantee you that our money won't last an entire month!"

"Then I'll ask the Hi's for more!"

"Their money is supposed to be used on our research, not for personal gain!"

"My daughter is sick and it is your fault! I'm not leaving her here!"

"Fine then!" She screamed, "I don't know why I even agreed to any of this! I'll see you in a fucking month!"

"And watch your language! I don't need you speaking like that in front of her," He crossed his arms.

"I will speak however I want in front of your daughter, and there's nothing you can do about it!" And she walked off.

* * *

><p>"Spell 'thoroughly' correct or else you can find yourself sleeping in the rain tonight!" Aurora yelled aggravated at the three-year-old who was standing drenched outside their tent.<p>

The young girl was bawling her eyes out because she had been standing out there for nearly two hours and Aurora refused to let her in. Nos had wandered off for the day to do some research and so Aurora, unwillingly, had to take care of the child.

A while back, sometime after Nos had brought her home from the hospital, Aurora came up with this ingenious plan to make Raine do research. Aurora decided that she was going to teach all her knowledge to the child, so that in no time she would become a great researcher. And her plan was working. Raine, now three years old, could formulate simple math equations, collect samples, and formulate complex sentences. Before Raine was allowed to go to sleep each night, since she had started talking, she had to spell out all the words Aurora gave her and had to use them in a proper sentence.

"Aurora, I'm cold, wet, and tired. Can't I just come inside?" Her speech slurred from all the incessant crying and the fact that she had lost one of her front teeth.

The brunette woman sat lazily on her sleeping bag and stared at the child, "And what are you determining my answer to be?"

"I would like you to say 'yes,' but there is a higher probability that you will say 'no.'"

"Then why do you bother asking?"

The young brunette squatted down and wrapped her arms around her knees. She didn't want to spell words anymore. She just wanted to remove herself from the rain.

"Aurora, why is she outside?" Nos complained as he approached the small girl from behind. He held his umbrella over her head.

"She hasn't finished her words today," Aurora said casually as she intentionally fell on her back.

The redhead sighed and looked down at his sobbing daughter, "I'll stay out here with you."

As much as Nos would have loved to force himself and Raine into the tent, it was a bad idea. He used to try it when Raine was a bit younger, but during the night Aurora would pick the child up and throw her back outside. There was no use in fighting it.

"Now spell 'thoroughly'," She ordered.

"T-H…O-R-O-U-G-H…L…Y…thoroughly."

"Use it in a sentence."

"The scientist examined the specimen thoroughly," she continued to cry.

"Diction," Aurora said.

"Aurora!" Nos raised his voice.

"I said 'Diction'."

"D-I-C-T-I-O-N…diction."

Nos looked down at his sad daughter and sighed. The poor girl didn't need this every night.

"The diction in this novel is dry causing it to be a boring read."

Aurora yawned, "You may come in."

Nos extended his hand to his daughter, and the young child took it. He then walked her into the tent and grabbed a few towels to dry her off.

"If she catches a cold, you're going to take care of her," he threatened.

"Oh believe me, you don't want that," And she rolled over to fall asleep.

"There, is that better?" He wondered as he dried the young girl's hair off.

Her face was stained with tears and snot, so he took a tissue and wiped it.

"May I go to bed?" She wondered as her eyes became heavy with tears.

"Of course," he smiled and then watched her crawl into her tiny sleeping bag.

* * *

><p>"Now where did she wander off to?" Aurora looked around as she carried a basket with some clothes in it.<p>

"Leave her alone," Nos said as he attempted to fix one of the table legs.

"She's supposed to be going over the field journal. I expect her to have that thing memorized!"

The redhead crawled out from under the table and dusted the dirt off his body. It was a hot summer's day, only a few days after Raine's sixth birthday.

"She's got a photographic memory, I wouldn't worry about it too much," he replied.

She placed the basket in the tent and turned back to her partner, "I still can't believe that bumbling idiot has an IQ of 190."

"She's a genius!" Nos chuckled.

"But she doesn't apply herself!"

"She's a child. Let her run around and enjoy her childhood. You're too strict."

"And you're not strict enough. She doesn't need your carefree attitude!"

"You know, for someone who didn't want to raise her you're awfully bossy!"

"Well if I wasn't doing something about her then she'd just be a hindrance. I've turned her into a masterpiece."

He heaved a heavy sigh. How could Aurora only think of Raine as some type of lab experiment?

"Look she's up there with Suicune," he pointed drawing the brunette's attention to the six-year-old.

"Well she'd best be doing some fucking research then!" Aurora shouted loud enough for the girl to hear.

Raine turned her head to her parents and looked at them monotonously. She then turned her attention back to the legendary canine that rested only a few feet from where she was squatting. In her hands were some red berries that she had found while wandering around earlier. She placed a few down in front on the teal colored hound and then started munching away on the remainder.

Suicune stared at the berries for a bit before taking one and eating it.

"Why can't my parents be as tolerant as you?" She wondered taking a seat on the sand filled ground. "Aurora is always like 'Do this' or 'Do that.' It's incredibly frustrating. You're lucky that you don't have a horrible mother!"

Blitz and Aurora's Espeon made their way over to the young brunette and lay down next to her. Those two were her only friends. But she felt that she was beginning to grow on Suicune and that in no time she would have another friend to play with. She handed both the Eevee evolutions some berries and then began to look at the magnificent creature before her.

Suicune had a bad habit of being lazy while her parents did their research. It would get up and move if Nos or Aurora came within 10 feet of it, but Raine could get within a few inches and Suicune would be fine. No one understood why, but Aurora tried to take advantage of it and made Raine do more research, but she often refused and ran off.

The young girl closed her eyes and inhaled the surrounding air. She loved the summer. Basking in the sun all day was all she ever wanted to do.

When she opened her eyes she saw Suicune in her face. It pressed its nose against hers and a bright light flashed causing her to go momentarily blind. When the light went away, the Legendary beast stood to its feet and wandered away.

Confused and disoriented the young girl made her way back to camp where her parents were standing among a shallow stream. Nos was bent down and collecting a sample while Aurora was tying her hair up in a lengthy ponytail.

She took off her shoes and socks stepping barefooted into the shallow stream. She stood behind her father and tugged on his shirt.

"Papa, my eyes are in excruciating pain," she said rubbing her left eye with her left hand.

Nos capped off his sample and handed it to Aurora before turning to look at his daughter. When he did, he was shocked at what he saw.

"What happened to your hair?" He wondered as he picked up part of her hair that had changed to a strange teal color. "Aurora!"

The brunette sighed desperate to stay out of the family matter, but she turned her attention to them anyway.

"What?"

"Look at her hair!"

The pale brunette made her way over and examined the girl, "What did you get into?"

"Nothing, honest!" She defended, "Suicune touched my nose."

"Don't lie!" The aggravated woman raised her hand as if to slap Raine across the face.

"I don't think she's lying. We don't own anything that could change her hair this color nor does anything this color grow around here."

"Suicune hasn't come in contact with any of us. You actually expect me to believe that it decided to change her hair color? How preposterous!" She laughed.

"We don't know much about Suicune's powers. Anything is possible," Nos released his daughter's hair and moved her left hand to see what was wrong with her eyes. "Your eyes look fine."

"What's wrong with my hair?" She wondered naively.

"Take a look in the stream."

And so she moved herself so that she could see her reflection in the water and what she saw astounded her. Raine usually styled her hair with a part to the right. She would take the dangling hair and shove it behind her ear, but the part that she usually shoved behind her ear had changed from brown to teal. It was unusual and she liked it. Teal, after all, was her favorite color.

"We should write this down in the field journal," Nos proposed.

"I suppose," Aurora responded and pulled the grey book from her bag and placed it on the table.

"What does this mean, Papa?"

"I have no idea," he sounded a bit concerned. Who knew what would result from her strange colored hair. "Anyway, you should probably study the field journal before Aurora springs a pop quiz on you."

"Of course…"

* * *

><p>"One of these days she's going to fall off that cliff," Aurora stated as she had looked up from her samples to see what everyone else was doing.<p>

"You're more paranoid than I am," Nos chuckled as he sketched their newest environment.

In the last month, they had moved at least to five different locations among the five regions. Each time Nos would find some place comfortable to sit and sketch the location. In order to better understand the locations that Suicune liked to thrive, he would compare them to each other.

"I'm not paranoid!" She defended. "Well, when she falls off that cliff I'll just laugh and say 'told you so!'"

He rolled his eyes, "She's a smart girl, plus Suicune won't let anything happen to her."

"Smart girl or not, she's the clumsiest person I've ever seen. She always trips over the tent, she always manages to fall into whatever body of water we're by, I don't know how many times in the past six years that I've had to redo laundry because she keeps tripping over things and having the clothes conveniently fall into some sort of mud puddle. Yeah Nos, she's not going to fall off that cliff at all."

"Have some faith," he said.

"Whatever…" She went back to work. "She's all brains, but when it comes to things we haven't taught her, she's as dumb as they come. She wouldn't survive a day on her own."

"Well, that's why she has us."

"Mhm, when she gets older I'm going to start introducing her to every young man I see in hopes that one of them will take her off our hands. I can't continue living like this."

He sighed and then called to his daughter, "Raine, you're getting awfully close to the edge of that cliff."

The young girl heard her father's echoes from way up on the ledge. The cliff she was standing on was ten stories up from where camp was, but other cliffs surrounded it so it was pretty easy to hear each other.

"Don't worry, Papa, I'll be careful!" She laughed and then made her way over to where Blitz and the Espeon were chasing each other.

Suicune stood off a bit looking to the north.

"What's wrong, Suicune?" She wondered.

"The wind is changing. It's time for us to go," he told her telekinetically.

"Already?" She sighed. She was just getting used to this place.

She then looked over and saw Blitz peering over the edge of the cliff. She ran over and picked the shiny Umbreon up.

"What are you doing? Papa just told me to stay away from the cliff!" And as she said that she felt the ground break beneath her feet, and before she knew it she was falling.

Blitz jumped out of her arms and safely landed on the ground but the brunette with the teal stripe continued to plummet.

She screamed at the top of her lungs as Suicune jumped off the cliff and jumped off the two sides trying to catch her. The young girl's screaming gathered her father's attention as he looked up from his drawing.

He knocked his supplies over when he saw her falling.

"Raine!" Nos screamed as he ran to where she was descending.

Aurora looked up from her work and under her breath she said: "I told you so," and then made her way over.

The girl went cascading into the nearby river that divided the two cliffs from each other. Panicked, Nos ran as fast as he could to where his daughter fell in and then noticed her pushed to shore. He was certain she was dead; no human could survive a fall like that.

Nos fell to his knees when he reached her and started crying. His little girl lie face down against the sandy beach, her clothes were stained in blood.

Aurora made her way over and just looked at the horrific sight. Neither of them were moving. She made her way over and stood behind Nos.

She took a deep breath and said: "Sorry."

"I should have listened to you…" He wiped his tear lain face with his arm, "She's incredibly clumsy and I knew that. I shouldn't have let her up there."

"You didn't know…" She said but she was horrible at consoling.

Suicune stood behind them staring at the young girl.

Raine's little hand twitched as she struggled to move it. A bright blue light silhouetted her body in the water. Nos looked up at his little girl and saw her hand twitch.

"Raine!" He crawled over to her and attempted to roll her over.

"That hurts!" She managed to say so he stopped.

Aurora's cerulean eyes widened in surprise. How was it possible that she had survived that?

The two scientists turned their heads towards the Legendary creature and watched as it made its way towards their daughter. It nuzzled her face and then looked at Nos.

"Leave her in the water for a while."

Nos blinked a couple times certainly surprised that Suicune of all things had spoken to him.

"Sure…"

"What did you do to her?" Aurora wondered.

The creature picked up its head and glanced at the female.

"I gave her a blessing. She will be fine as long as she stays in the water," It then walked off.

Aurora knelt down and looked at the girl. She picked up a strand of the girls hair and noticed that the teal piece was almost white.

"Suicune must've purified the water in her body. When she's dying her hair must turn white." This was of course all just and assumption on Aurora's part, but it seemed to make sense. How else would staying in water help her?

Nos looked at her and then back to his daughter, "If it wasn't for Suicune, she'd be dead."

"Certainly. But this is truly astounding. I wonder if this has ever happened to someone before," She questioned.

"It's something worth looking into, but we should keep this a secret. If the world were to find out about this she'd be taken as some sort of freak or people would think that she was some type of immortal power. I don't want her to live a life like that."

"I'll write it in the field journal and only the Hi's and Dr. Willow will know," Aurora stood up and headed back for the camp.

Nos placed his hand on his daughter's head and stroked her hair, "Did you hear that, Raine? You must keep this a secret from everyone."

The young girl attempted to nod her head but ended up giving up. She was in too much pain.

* * *

><p>"Everyone's eyes were judging me, Papa," ten-year-old Raine said holding the grey field journal to her body as they were walking to their newest destination to do research. "I'm not some kind of foreign freak!"<p>

Nos placed his hand on his daughter's shoulder and pulled her in for a side embrace, "Society isn't used to seeing a ten-year-old with an unobtainable IQ. I think you did brilliant."

"You were spot on. I don't think your father and I could have done any better," Aurora crossed her arms still hating to praise people.

Raine's eyes lit up when she heard that. It was very rare, indeed, that Aurora ever praised her.

"I just think that they were all shocked when they found out that their talk on Suicune was going to be given by a ten-year-old," Nos chuckled.

Early that mid-summer's day, they made their way to Professor Oak's Research Facility, where he had set up a podium, projector, and several chairs outside, since it was such a nice day, for the talk. There, Raine was privileged to meet all the famous Pokémon Professors and even Dr. Willow, her parent's professor.

"You should keep in mind all those professors. It'll be beneficial to you in the future," Aurora said casually.

"Alright!" The girl smiled and then turned to look up at her father, "So you don't think that they were skeptical of my hair?"

The redhead man with some grey hair pondered it for a second and then said: "No one knows about your hair besides the Hi's and Dr. Willow. For all you, or for that matter we, know, they think you dyed it."

"I'm not stupid, Papa," she remarked.

"Certainly not!"

"You're still a clumsy little shit," Aurora rolled her eyes.

"My apologies…" The girl looked at the ground.

"If Suicune hadn't given you that power, you'd certainly be six feet under."

"I'm aware," she sighed. Why did Aurora always have to bring that up?

Suddenly the ground started shaking just enough to disturb their walking but not much of anything else.

"Tremors," Nos said standing back up from all the shaking. "We'd best tread carefully."

* * *

><p>"Suicune!" Raine shouted as she gleefully ran through a field with the two Eevee evolutions following her. She fell to her knees as she hugged the beast. "Papa and Aurora said I did really well!"<p>

"I'm proud of you," It said to her.

"Thanks!" She sat comfortably in the grass and looked around.

She had heard of this place in her parent's field journal, but never had she actually seen Rainbow Valley. In the ten years that Raine had lived, this was the first time that she had come across this location. And she was ecstatic. She loved reading about Rainbow Valley in the field journal and from other books that she happened to stumble across on their many visits to local libraries.

"Do you like the Unova region, Suicune?"

"I like all the regions."

"My personal favorite is Unova. It has all the large cities and bustling people, but then it also has some very serene and desolate spots. The Pokémon are also quite exotic."

Suicune's ears started twitching and the other two Pokémon stood to their feet. Suicune lazily stood up and looked around. Suddenly all the Pidove, Tranquill, and Unfezant flew out from the trees. The Legendary bit onto the girl's collar and tossed her on its back.

"What's wrong?" She wondered startled.

"Earthquake!" Suicune announced as it dashed from the area. The earthquake started moments later.

"I'm concerned for Papa and Aurora! They're by camp!"

"It's too dangerous to head back."

"No, we have to return!" Raine shouted

Suicune halted itself and turned towards the valley to see a sudden rockslide.

"Papa!" She shouted, "Suicune, we need to return!"

Unwilling, the Legendary decided to head back into the chaos as the earthquake subsided. It dashed at full speed to the camp and Raine jumped off. She ran around frantically until she found where the rockslide had occurred and her father sitting on the ground with his hand to his neck.

"Papa!" She dashed over to him.

She noticed blood rapidly descending from his neck and down his arm. She went to move his blood covered hand when he swatted her away.

"Go and get help," he told her trying to remain hopeful for the situation.

"Your artery has been severed. We need to do something or else you'll-"

"I said go get help!" He hated raising his voice to her.

"Where's Aurora?"

"Tsk. Raine, go get help!" He screamed.

She was startled by this action and so she stood shakily to her feet trying not to cry and climbed back onto Suicune. Blitz and Espeon joined her and then they rushed off to the nearest city.

"Suicune, why can't you just do to him what you did to me? He'd have a chance!"

"I'm sorry, Raine. My power can only be given to one person at a time."

She looked back towards the camp and hoped that they would return in time.

Nos shakily headed towards the rockslide and found Aurora's lifeless body. Where her head was supposed to be was replaced by a massive boulder. He knew this was the outcome, but he had to move away from her body. He couldn't let Raine be exposed to this.

The two scientists were rather unlucky. They had just set everything up when the earthquake began. Aurora didn't even have a chance. The boulder that took her life was the first thing to fall. Then a tree came descending and got him pretty good in the neck.

It was useless to try and save himself at this point. He sent his own daughter away so that she wouldn't see him die. There was no possible way that she was going to make it back before he ran out of blood. And as he thought this, he felt himself descend into unconsciousness and fell to the ground dead.

* * *

><p>Suicune took the girl to the border of Castelia City. She then jumped off and ran as fast as she could to the police station.<p>

She ran up to the desk and frantically said: "Please help, there was an earthquake and my parent's don't have much time! Hurry my father severed his artery!"

The lady sitting behind the desk just stared at the frantic girl.

"Hold on, I need to take down some information."

"We don't have time for that! They're going to die!" She shouted on the verge of tears.

"What's going on?" An officer Jenny asked as she came out from behind her desk.

"Where did this happen, little girl?" The lady behind the desk asked.

"Rainbow Valley!"

"That's outside our jurisdiction."

"Who cares?" She yelled, "My parents!"

"Now what's going on?"

"There was an earthquake!" She started crying, "Please, they're not going to make it if we wait any longer!"

The officer Jenny looked at the lady behind her desk and nodded. The lady quickly got on the phone and called for everyone to head to Rainbow Valley.

Raine went for a ride in the back of the nice officer Jenny's car and made it back to the campsite. There, they took over the situation and had Raine step back.

The girl gathered the field journal, her parent's journals, and started taking down the tent. Before she could finish, the officer Jenny approached her.

"I'm sorry. We're too late."

Raine froze when she heard those words. How could they be dead?

"No, they can't be."

"I'm sorry…"

She started crying like she never had before. Blitz and the Espeon came over and sat next to her.

"Come on, we should take you back to the city," The officer Jenny went to grab the young girl but she moved away.

"No, no, no, no!" Raine shouted and then turned and bolted deeper into the valley. There she found Suicune and climbed on its back. Blitz and Espeon joined her and they headed off before the officer Jenny could catch up.

Raine had managed to collect her parent's journals, but still she needed the tent and her sleeping bag. They weren't going to put her in some orphanage. The other children there would just abuse her, and she had no place in society. Her IQ would surely cause her to be rejected.

They waited around until all the officers left and then returned to camp where Raine couldn't stop crying. She attempted to continue to take down the tent, but eventually gave up and sat on the ground, bringing her knees to her chest and cried.

Blitz walked over and nuzzled himself against her.

"Blitz, they're gone. They're really gone!"

"Come on, Raine," Suicune said softly, "You can't stay here all night."

The ten-year-old sniffled and then brought herself to her feet. She rolled up the tent and her sleeping. She then gathered her father's bag and shoved her clothes and Aurora's clothes into it, attached the tent and the sleeping bag, found her parent's pokéballs, and then climbed, once again, onto Suicune and headed off—the last time she would be seen by those who knew her for almost seven years.

* * *

><p><strong>Alright so I gave Suicune mysterious powers for a couple reasons: one it helps the plot, two he's a Legendary and they don't know much about them so whose to say he can't have mysterious powers, and three it's my story. This also marks the end of the Nos and Aurora arc, but do not fret dear readers...no, they will return continuously throughout the story, whether in flashbacks or memories. Nos and Aurora were both 25 in chapter one and at the beginning of chapter 2, Aurora was 34 and Nos was 33 (he's slightly younger). At the end of the chapter, they were both 45. Next chapter I'm introducing new characters that we haven't met yet, along with what happened to Raine.<strong>

**As a side note, I force my boyfriend to read all my chapters before I post them (he hates it) and he LOLed when he read their sex scene and told me that it wasn't descriptive enough and here's my answer to that: No one cares about Nos and Aurora. They're not even the freakin main characters! lol**

**-Aninika**


	3. Two Friends and A Stranger

**Ah, ignore anything I have prior written about upcoming chapters. I've changed this story so much that it is generally the same, but far different from what I had originally imagined, which is ok. I believe the story is more compelling this way. Anyway, I had this chapter done like a month or two ago, but then I said screw it and decided to mostly re-write it and include things that were going to be in the next chapter (that no longer exists). Anyway, we meet the new characters :D Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>~.::Tale of Two Friends and A Stranger::.~<p>

"Kurt?" A puzzled 6' spiky, dull, sandy blonde teenager wondered in a dry tone. The teenager rarely ever showed emotion unless he felt it was absolutely necessary or taken off guard.

The person in question was standing outside the police station holding up his middle fingers walking backwards from the glass doors. He was wearing a grey sweater vest with orange and beige argyle. Underneath were a white, short sleeved, dress-up shirt and a black tie. He finished off the look with tan khaki pants and brown business shoes.

"Well, if it isn't Ryu. What you been up to, fucker?" Kurt, a black haired 6'5" male, smiled and put his friend in a headlock giving him a noogie.

Ryu groaned as he forcefully shoved the older man off of him. He then spent a considerate amount of time fixing his hair.

"Dude, that thing is gelled stiff. I think you're fine," chuckled Kurt as he slapped the blonde on the back in cheerful delight. "Ah, what's this?" He wondered as he forcibly grabbed the blonde's ear.

"Stop!" Ryu hissed as he swatted his friend's hand away.

"When did you get your ear pierced?" obviously ignoring the younger male.

"You were there when I got it done," The sandy blonde shoved his hands in his grey baggy pants' pockets looking dissatisfied at the older male. Meeting up with Kurt was regrettable.

"Really now? So did you hear I got a tattoo?" He didn't give his young friend a chance to respond, "I found a few Pokémon that have these weird tattoo like marks on them, you know, from the pollution incident that happened 27 years ago. So, I decided that I wanted to collect them and so they'd fit in, I got this!" He rose up his left sleeve revealing a black, tribal sun tattoo.

The blonde found it very strange that Kurt had enough interest in these Pokémon that he would try to make them fit in. Kurt never tried to make anyone feel like they belonged. The only exception for this was women that he found sexually appealing.

"That's great…" Ryu strayed off briefly recalling the incident that happened 27 years ago. Obviously he wasn't alive to actually recall the event, but he had heard enough about it from his parents that it had felt like he was actually there.

From the time Ryu was a young boy his parents made sure to introduce him to every type of pokéball that existed- including the Master Ball. The Hi's called it their greatest treasure, but made sure that Ryu knew the repercussions of the item. The child knew the pokéball like the back of his hand, part of his parents intention. As the heir to the multi-trillion-dollar fortune, Ryu was required to know every aspect of the family business.

"So what are you doing here?" Kurt asked freeing the blonde from his reverie.

The blonde just stared into the distance with his blank caramel eyes and then eyed the police station to his right.

"Why are _you_ here?" Ryu wondered not meaning to ask a question over the other question, but it was quite curious to find Kurt standing outside a police station.

The black haired male shrugged his shoulders and raised his hands up in defeat.

"I don't know, and I don't care." It was common for Kurt to do stupid things, even regrettable things, but it generally wasn't common for him to black out and wake up in prison. "So anyway what are you doing now that you've graduated from the 'prestigious Pokémon Academy' or whatever?" The black haired man wondered while waving to some skimpily dressed blonde girl and her brunette friend.

Ryu sighed and blew off the waves from the girls mostly because they were partly for Kurt, but also because he didn't care.

"I'm going to be the champion of the Pokémon World," The blonde's calm yet arrogant remark jolted the black haired male back to the conversation.

"You're kidding, right?" Kurt practically scoffed at Ryu's words.

"I'm here to face Burgh."

The two males began to walk and talk while on their way south, towards the docks. It had been a while since Ryu was last in Castelia City. His journey had begun a month prior and that was the last time that he had seen the city. He felt amazed by the surroundings, but was far from being tourist like. It had also been a while since he had last seen Kurt Redwood, heir to the famous Redwood fortune, as well. It was hard to say that the two had grown together, Kurt being seven years older than Ryu, but the two were found together as often as they could be. They grew up as neighbors, and that led to their eventual friendship even though the two weren't very similar.

"Ah, that bug type gym leader?"

The younger male nodded his head as he looked around the city.

"His bugs will burn."

"Smartass, and what happens if you lose?"

"Ember and I won't," Ryu looked down at his canine partner. The orange dog like creature followed the two males with his red tongue sticking out, panting. He barked when his companion looked at him.

"One of these days you're going to lose," Kurt said with a big smile on his face. Oh yes, Ryu was going to lose one day, he was sure of it, and Kurt was going to enjoy every second of it.

"You'll be the first to know," Ryu smiled, it was a rare occasion to see him do so unless he was being arrogant or an asshole.

"So, you found yourself a girlfriend yet?" Kurt mocked knowing that it was more than likely that he hadn't. Ryu was very picky about the type of people he associated himself with.

The sandy blonde gave Kurt a dull stare when he asked. Ryu had no reason to associate himself with women. Sure he was incredibly attractive; he had the whole surfer look going for him, but he loathed fan girls. And though he attracted others, he grouped them all together.

"We should stop by Casteliacone," Ryu said, after a bit, totally brushing Kurt's comment off.

Casteliacone was a local ice cream shop that stood open one day a week. People from all over Pokémon World would jump in line in hopes of getting a taste of their delicious ice cream. However, the line was always incredibly long and they would run out of ice cream before everyone would get served.

"You're an idiot. The line is a mile long, literally!"

"So?" The blonde looked at Kurt with dull amusement, "It's something to do."

"I can find plenty of other things I'd rather do."

Ryu blinked slowly as he waited for Kurt to suggest something, but when that didn't happen he asked: "Like?"

Kurt snapped out of his reverie and directed his sea blue eyes at the blonde, "I'm sorry, what?"

He wasn't even surprised.

It Kurt a few seconds to collect himself. He then turned to younger male.

"So did you hear that Red just got inducted into the Grand Elite Four?" He asked purposely knowing that it would piss Ryu off.

However, Ryu acted in an opposing manner. The blonde kept facing forward looking collected as he always did.

"Yeah, I heard…"

"And?"

"And what?"

Kurt just shook his head in disapproval. His layered black hair then fell neatly against his head as if he had never shook his head to begin with. However, he did have to brush his bangs from his face.

"So, you're really going to try to get inducted?"

Ryu paused for a second and then replied: "Of course."

The older male sighed. The Grand Elite Four had formed into existence in the last ten years. Champions, of all regions, from the past came together and fought to be the first inducted. The four champions that made up the Grand Elite Four were undefeated until Red came along, being the first outsider to join them. Now, Ryu had a dream of being the second inducted.

Ryu's family never understood why he would want to be a world champion. Ryu, who was lucky enough to be born into the richest family in all of Pokémon World, had his path already laid at his feet. But he wanted nothing to do with it. Ryu didn't want to take over the family business; he had no interest in it. However, being the eldest son of the Hi's, he didn't have much of a choice. By birthright, he was the heir.

"Have you ever even thought about taking over your family business?" Kurt wondered as the three came to a halt where the pavement met sand from the beach.

"No."

He sighed, "You're foolish."

"How about you?"

Kurt shoved his hands into his pockets as he watched the people at the beach run around, swim, bathe in the sunlight, and things of that sort.

"Considering that I just graduated from the Pokémon Professor Academy, I'd say no."

Ryu raised a brow.

"Hey, don't give me that look! My parents gave me a choice, yours didn't."

The younger male sat down on the ledge that overlooked the sandy beach and rested his head on his left, propped knee.

"If I could give away my family's fortune, I would in a heartbeat."

"I don't believe you!"

Ryu rolled his head to the left and directed his caramel eyes at the older male.

"Money has never meant much to me."

"I can't believe I'm hearing this. Ryu Hi, son of the richest family in all of Pokémon World, could care less about money?" Kurt was laughing so hard that he practically lost his balance.

Ember, Ryu's Growlithe, began to bark at Kurt, but he ceased to halt his laughter. He continued laughing until a very clumsy brunette female brought him to the sandy ground. Kurt ruthlessly shoved the young girl off of him and stood to his feet. Ryu and Ember jumped down from the ledge and over to the girl who had managed to get herself to a crawling position. Ryu held out his black glove covered hand to the female and helped her to her feet.

She dusted herself off, standing 5'6", and looked up at the male who had helped her.

"Ryu?" The girl said wide-eyed and in shock.

He looked at her curiously, "Do I know you?"

She seemed as though she were going to answer when a chubby man came into their line of view panting.

"THIEF!" He shouted and then bent over in exhaustion.

An Umbreon came running over to the girl.

"My apologies!" She bowed and then took off along the beach.

"STOP HER!" The chubby, balding man shouted one last time before collapsing to the ground.

"Should we go after her?" Kurt wondered, though he honestly didn't care.

Ryu shrugged, "I'll just pay him whatever she owes."

He began to walk past Kurt, when he laid a hand on Ryu's shoulder.

"Do you know her?"

Without even taking the time to consider it, Ryu responded: "No."

He then hoisted himself over the brick wall and handed the chubby vender the money for the stolen food. The vender thanked him numerous times and then walked off. Kurt joined Ryu back on the main road as the sun began to set.

The two males and the Growlithe started down the darkening streets towards their respective hotel rooms. Kurt contemplated heading to a club for the night while Ryu thought about the strange encounter from earlier. He must have looked like it too because Kurt slapped him on the back and then asked:

"Are you sure you don't know her?"

Ryu wasn't quite sure if it was an honest question or if Kurt was trying to imply something by it.

"It's not like I'm not recognizable," Ryu said as he determined that to be the proper conclusion. "I'm sure most people, here, know what I look like."

"Whatever…" Kurt then looked around the once bustling streets that were now suddenly more silent. "I'm thinking about heading to the club tonight. Do you want to come?"

"No."

"You want to think about that?"

"No."

"Come on, I could hook you up with someone nice!"

"No."

"Maybe you could finally lose your V-card!"

Ryu sighed, "I'm going to my hotel."

"Figured, you're so boring," Kurt sighed and then took off a bit down the street waving to his friend. "I'll see you later, I suppose."

"Wait… Kurt?" Ryu asked hesitantly.

The elder male stopped and turned back to his young friend, "What's up?"

"Did she look familiar to you?"

Kurt rubbed his stubbly chin and thought, "Nope."

Ryu's eyes held a bit of disappointment, but he wasn't quite sure why.

"Never mind, I'll see you tomorrow." And with that the two males went their separate ways.

* * *

><p>Early the next morning, Ryu made his way down to the beach along with Ember; the two were practically inseparable. He wasn't really sure what brought him all the way down there so early in the morning, but the dawn ocean air felt good against his skin. He took a deep breath and inhaled his surroundings, closing his eyes.<p>

"It's quite early," said a soft female voice.

He opened his eyes and looked towards the startling voice.

"Who are you?" He asked noticing that it was the girl from the prior evening.

She thought for a second before responding, "I appreciate your benevolence."

He jumped off the ledge and walked over to her.

"How do you know me?"

"Are you not Ryu Hi, heir to the Hi fortune? You're easily recognizable," She was walking along the water line kicking up muddy dirt with her worn out work boots.

He could see her bear feet through the holes. In fact, her boots reflected her entire outfit. The red woven sweater in which she wore had the sleeves torn off and had begun to unravel in select areas. Her pants were black and torn in various places. In fact, she didn't look like someone well off at all.

"I paid that man off."

"I'm aware," she continued on her path and then halted with him a few feet behind, "You don't recall me, do you?"

He stared at her without recollection. Should he have known her?

"…to be expected…" she looked briefly disappointed, but then returned to her casual look.

He remained quiet and then looked at her with a change in tone.

"Have you eaten?"

His question took her by surprise, which caused her to stop in her tracks and pause. And then she thought about it and shook her head.

"Let's go," he motioned for her to follow him.

She took two steps towards him and then stopped.

"Wait, I…I can't," she held her hand close to her body, withdrawn.

He sighed with a smile, "Don't worry about it, I'll feed your Umbreon too."

"Growl-Growlithe!" Barked Ember as if to agree.

The brunette looked down at her Umbreon who looked at her. Free food after all was free food.

"Alright, I have time constraints though," she was worried by her own words.

He motioned her to follow him, again.

She nodded reluctantly and followed a few feet behind him and his partner with her Umbreon trailing. They walked for a bit like that until he found a small restaurant located off the pier and sat down outside at a small white table meant for two. He sat there casually staring at the simple white menu while she sat there uncomfortably rubbing her arms as if she were freezing. He looked up from his menu and glanced at her.

"Are you ok?"

She jumped a little, not expecting him to speak to her.

"I'm exceptional!" she raised her hands in a nervous defense.

"Uh huh…" his eyes returned to the menu.

Shortly after, a waiter came over and took their drink orders and then left. The female continued to sit there uncomfortably while the male chose to ignore it. It wasn't worth it to pry because she wasn't going to tell him.

"Anything appealing?" She asked after a bit.

"Depends on what you like," he responded though that only made her looked more uncomfortable. He wasn't really sure what was wrong with her. "You can get whatever you like."

"O-ok…" she directed her attention to the menu before her, "So…uh… can I call you Ryu?"

He blinked a couple times, "Yeah, sure."

This took her by surprise. She then smiled, "My name is Raine Crystalline."

He was slightly confused, "That sounds familiar."

"Oh, um, we were introduced ages ago, but it was mutual," she was embarrassed for no apparent reason. Her Umbreon rubbed up against her leg causing her to pet him. "My father was Nos Crystalline."

She bit her lower lip in hopes that he would recall her father.

"He was my parents' best friend," he said and then paused when the waiter gave them their drinks and then took their meal orders.

Her face lit up, "Yes, and my moth- and Aurora Nightly, I mean."

"I know about Mr. Crystalline and Miss Nightly," he spoke casually. It was no big secret to anyone in his family.

She began to fidget her fingers, "My apologies!"

He looked at her, once again, confused, "Why are you so fidgety?"

"I'm… tense around you."

"Why?"

"I can't… enlighten you," she reserved herself. If he didn't know, there was no reason to bring it up.

"Alright…" confused still. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out his vibrating cell phone, "Hello?"

The waiter, once again, came over and this time delivered their food, even making sure to give their Pokémon something. Raine waited a bit before digging into her food. She didn't want to seem rude, but Ryu was taking a particularly long time on the phone, even though he was barely saying anything. He then hung up his phone and picked up his fork.

"A friend will be joining us."

Raine dropped some of her omelet in her Umbreon's dish. Ryu pulled out a small grey cell phone looking pokédex with a red pokéball symbol on the bottom and held it up to the Umbreon.

It read: "Umbreon, the Moonlight Pokémon, and an evolved form of Eevee. The rings on Umbreon's body glow faintly when exposed to the moon's aura and it gains a mysterious power."

"His name is Sora," she said as she put down her fork.

He looked at her and then down to the Umbreon.

"Um…"

He turned his attention to her before speaking, "I want to ask you something."

It took her by surprise, "…y-yes?"

"Where are you staying? Do you live around here?"

"Oh…" she stared longingly at her food. She couldn't recall the last time she had a meal like this.

Realizing that he was beating a dead horse, he decided to ask: "Are you a trainer?"

Continuing to look at her food, she shook her head, "I'm a researcher."

"Would you like-"

"Ah, man, it only took me _forever_ to find this place. I mean could you have picked a restaurant in a more touristy location?" Intruded Kurt. He placed a chair facing away from the table and sat backwards upon it. He then stole a piece of toast off of Ryu's plate and began to munch on it, "You should have came with me last night. I found a few girls looking for a young virgin."

Ryu's face went back to its bland boredom that he commonly had when he was around Kurt. Raine's face turned bright red.

Mouth full of toast, Kurt looked over at the unknown female and asked, "Ryu, who's this?"

"Raine Crystalline," Ryu introduced with sheer boredom.

The black haired male leaned towards the blonde one and said: "She's pretty cute, when did you meet her?"

"You're an idiot," Ryu remarked, "This is the daughter of Nos Crystalline."

Kurt leaned back in his chair and examined the girl, "Seriously? What's with her hair?"

"I'm sorry, but I must go!" She suddenly stood up gaining the two men's attention.

"Ignore him," Ryu told her.

"My apologies, but I did declare I was on a time constraint."

"Are you sure? At least take the food."

"I appreciate what you've done for me, but I really am obligated go."

"If she wants to go just let her," Kurt chuckled.

She took a good look at the food and decided that she really was hungry so she sat back down. However, she really didn't want to talk about her hair.

"So what's with your hair?" Kurt pressed once again.

She nervously pushed her hair behind her ear. As much as she wish she could have, it was hard to try and hide it.

"Leave her alone," Ryu casually said seeing how awkward she was being about it.

"She your girlfriend?" Kurt chuckled thinking himself clever.

Ryu just shot him a death glare and then turned back to the young girl.

"Where are you going?"

"I can't stay here," she replied while stroking her off colored hair.

He took another bite of his food and thought.

"…Do you live anywhere?"

It was foolish for her to think that they hadn't noticed her slummy appeal, but still, it hurt to hear him bring it up.

"What are you cooking up in that strange little head of yours?" Kurt wondered while shoving his hand into the blonde's hair and trying to mess it up with little success.

Ryu retaliated by pushing Kurt so hard that he almost fell off his chair.

"Your parents were researchers as well."

"Yes…"

"Are you continuing their research?"

She was taken a bit by surprise; she hadn't actually thought that anyone would suggest she was whom she said.

Kurt began to laugh, "You actually think she's Raine Crystalline? The girl died almost seven years ago."

"She went missing."

"And was never found!"

"Please stop!" Raine intruded, "You don't need to believe me, um… what's your name?"

"He's Kurt Redwood."

"_Doctor _Kurt Redwood," The elder male added.

Ryu brushed the comment off. It was easy to tell of the two males bond.

"Did you study under Dr. Willow, Dr. Redwood?" She wondered as she continued to fidget, this time with her bag.

"Yeah…" Kurt looked at her puzzled. Why did it matter?

"May I acquisition what your field of study was?"

His fingers entwined before his lips as he stared at the table.

"I'm in the trial stages of becoming a Professor of Legendary Pokémon. I have to do five years of research on all Pokémon, and if all goes well I'll be working alongside Professor Oak. Why?"

"Oh… well, as you know, my parents studied under Dr. Willow, and well I have something that he needs to see, but I don't know where he's located…" She trailed off. He didn't even believe that she was whom she said, so why would he help her?

"It's a little bit outside Rustboro City. There's already a Pokémon Academy in that city, but this one is exclusive to Pokémon professors."

She twiddle her fingers coyly, "Um… where's that?"

"Are you serious?" Kurt turned to Ryu, "There's no fucking way she's Raine. That girl was a fucking genius!"

"I am a genius!" She shouted, frustrated but not in anger, "I just don't know locations…"

"Pfft, whatever," he rolled his eyes.

"It's in the Hoenn Region," Ryu responded since it was obvious that Kurt wasn't going to.

"Alright, then I really need to go. Thank you for the food!" She stood up in a hurry knocking herself off balance and then bowed causing her bag to empty out its contents on the ground.

Startled by it, she quickly knelt down and started picking everything up. The two males came over and helped her.

"Here," Ryu handed her a couple of black spiral bound journals as well as a black picture album.

She took them from him and shoved them in the bag; however, she was anxiously looking for something else. Upon further inspection, Kurt sat there holding a bound grey journal. He was flipping through some of the pages with interest as the color drained from Raine's face.

"Give that back to her," Ryu scolded noticing the worried look on the girl's face.

"This is the field journal on Suicune," Kurt said completely astounded, "This holds all the information known to man about the Legendary."

"Kurt!" He shouted.

The black haired male contemplated not handing it over, but he reluctantly closed the giant book and stiffly passed it over. She quickly captured it within her grasp and tightly hugged the book to her body.

"Is that what you want to give to Dr. Willow?" Kurt said in a pouting manner. Anyone of his rank would have died to get their hands on that book.

"…to read," she responded while placing it gently within her bag.

"What a waste," Kurt groaned as he stood to his feet. The journal of Suicune was a highly renowned item wanted by almost everyone. The research that it held was impeccable.

Raine made a move to stand to her feet when Ryu placed his hand on her shoulder.

"You know, I'm a trainer," he said casually, "Eventually my journey will take me to Dr. Willow, so…"

"Are you asking me to stay?" she had certainly not expected this turn of events.

He looked away and muttered: "I don't really know how you're living now, but what I'm offering…"

A smile crept across her face, "You're too nice, Ryu. But why?"

He looked at her perplexed. He didn't actually know why he wanted her to stay other than the fact that he didn't want her to continue living the way she was.

"Let me think on it," she said in bewilderment, "Tomorrow, I will meet you where we met this morning, with an answer."

He nodded his head.

"Now, I really must go... see you tomorrow, Ryu. Good day, Dr. Redwood," she stood to her feet, bowed, then took off down the street.

"You're an idiot," Kurt remarked while pushing his hand through his fine hair. "You are drawn to the strangest of people."

Ryu just directed his eyes to the blabbering male and then left cash on the table before walking off.

* * *

><p>"Suicune!" The young girl cheered while quickly making her way over to the Legendary and nuzzling her face against its.<p>

"I was worried when you didn't come back immediately," The Legendary said to her telekinetically.

"I ran into an old friend and got caught up in conversation. He wants me to join him," she looked worried and Suicune returned the look.

"The winds have changed, it's time for me to move on."

"Ah! No, please wait until tomorrow, I need time to think this through!" She pressed herself against the blue beast with a crushed heart.

"You know I cannot…"

The girl's eyes filled with sorrow. Suicune had taken care of her since her parents' death, how could she leave the Legendary now?

"Then let's go…" she heaved a heavy sigh.

The beast wanted to agree with her, but it felt digression. Raine had lived her whole life with Pokémon, and Suicune had been feeling that she needed to learn what it was like to interact with others of her kind. Grief filled its eyes as it pick up its large head in sorrow and looked at the almost 17-year-old girl.

"You know I care for you, but I believe that you are destined to venture with your friend," Suicune told her, "Since your parents' death I have been your foundation, but now it is time you interact with your own kind. The chance that I have been able to provide for you this entire time has been surprising, but another human could care for you in more ways than I can."

"Don't speak like that!" Her body began to quaver with emotion. "You've been my guardian for almost seven years, I barely know that guy, I'd rather stay with you!"

"Raine… it is time for you and Sora to write your own adventure free of my legend."

She broke down in tears and fell to her knees. The beast moved to wrap its neck around her in a loving embrace.

"I will always be there for you. Our bond is strong and we are connected in more ways than one."

"Then why does this feel like a 'goodbye'?" She wiped her eyes.

"It temporarily is…" it said, "But do not fret."

She slowly nodded her head as she stood to her feet. It was time for Suicune to go.

* * *

><p>Ryu wandered the morning beach in fatigue. He wasn't sure if she would show up, and frankly, he still couldn't understand why he had asked her to stay. He looked over at Ember who ran into the shallow ocean water and started rolling around until the Growlithe heard light footsteps. He then ran gleefully over to the cause of the sound. Ryu looked at the drained girl as she walked towards him. She was wearing a tight black mid-sleeved shirt with a rounded opening, revealing part of her upper chest, along with dark grey shorts that went over her shirt, and the torn boots from the prior day. Her eyes were slightly puffy with dark circles under them, and her cheeks and nose were slightly stained red from crying. She walked towards him as he stood there and watched her.<p>

"I…um…"

He held out his hand towards her, which caused her to look at him curiously until she realized that he wanted to place something within hers. She held out her pale hands to have a pink flip phone dropped into them.

"I had a feeling that you would choose to stay," he said not even waiting for her to give him official confirmation.

She flipped the phone open and looked through the contacts noticing that Ryu's and Kurt's were already inputted. She then smiled and closed it.

"Figured it'd be easier to keep in contact."

Her smile transformed into a giggle. Ryu was truly a strange person in her eyes.

"So where are we off to?" She wondered wiping her tear lain face.

* * *

><p>"Well that only took an excruciatingly long time!" Kurt said, grumpily, as he stood there, cross-armed, with two black brief cases on either side of him.<p>

"My apologies!" Raine said abruptly and attempted to bow.

"Don't worry about it," Ryu told her as he held out his arm to interrupt her bow, "Kurt gets annoyed when he could be partying."

"I already did, fucker!"

"Anyway," Ryu rolled his eyes, "We have to stop off at my parents' store before we can head home."

Kurt groaned, "Is that even necessary?"

Ryu just looked at him as if to say that it was, without any further explanation, and then started towards the tallest skyscraper in Castelia City. The building had 58 floors and ignoring the top 10, which were all offices, the remaining 48 were stocked full of clothing. They stopped outside the door and Ryu turned to his female companion.

"Get whatever you're going to need for two days."

She fixated her eyes upon him and began to slowly nod her head. She understood why he had said that they needed to go to his parents' store. They did, after all, own the Pokémon Clothing brand. The best part of all of this was that Ryu wasn't expected to pay for any clothing he got from his parents' store.

"Ember return!" Ryu's partner Pokémon turned into a red ball and was absorbed by the black and yellow Ultra Ball in his glove covered hand. "They don't like Pokémon wandering around in the store."

She nodded her head before reaching into her grey bag and pulled out a small pink ball with white swirls and a blue center. He was actually a bit surprised to see that she had a pokéball considering her run down appearance. Of course, he didn't know her relationship with her Pokémon, so he had no way of knowing if Sora would have stayed with her without the pokéball or what. Seeing that she let the Pokémon wander about freely, their bond was possibly very strong.

"If you ever need a pokéball don't be afraid to ask."

She called for her partner to return and then held the Heal Ball for a bit before smiling, "Yes, I'm quite aware of your family business." Referring to the other side that made pokéballs.

"Yeah…as exciting as this is, let's go in," Kurt grumbled.

Ryu led the way into the enormous skyscraper and she followed. Kurt sighed and reluctantly followed behind them. They eventually made their way through the busy lobby over to the elevator. When they filed in, Raine stood in the back and stayed as silent as possible.

"Are you going to get anything?" Ryu wondered casually directing his question to Kurt.

"No, I'm good," He responded in the same manner.

They then stood there awkwardly in silence. Raine felt like a sore thumb. She didn't really know these two people at all, and yet Ryu was treating her with such kindness that she was certain she didn't deserve. How could he just willingly accept her into his life?

The ding of elevator door snapped her back into reality and it opened before them as they stood on a pink-lit floor. Ryu had brought them to the lingerie floor in hopes to get this out of the way.

"Get whatever you need, I won't look," Ryu told her.

"I will," Kurt laughed causing Ryu to punch him in the stomach.

Raine blushed, getting used to these two was going to be harder than it seemed…

* * *

><p>"So tell me something about you, Ryu," Raine said as she grabbed a bra off the rack and checked the size and feel.<p>

He noticed that she seemed to be calming down. Ryu just sat on a bench, with his back to her, staring lazily into the rest of the store floor.

"What do you want to know?"

"You're a year older than me right?" She already knew the answer, but she wanted to see what he remembered about her.

"I suppose."

"So you're 17 then."

"Yeah…" he responded watching women of all shapes, sizes, and age wander through the store.

"And your birthday is June 3rd; ah, that's in a few days! Oh, and your brother is 16 like me… at least for the time being," She said shaking slightly from nervousness deciding on the bra in hand and then looked around for another one.

"You seem to know quite a bit about me already," his response was rather bland.

"Not really. I met you long ago and Papa would also tell me stories of you and your brother."

Kurt wandered over, intruding upon their conversation, holding a black silk lace bra and matching panties for Raine to take.

"These should be the right size."

Raine's face turned bright red, "Doc-Doctor Redwood!"

Ryu stood up and walked over to Kurt, "Stop being such a pervert!"

"I'm not! I'm helping speed this up," Kurt sighed, "I get annoyed of shopping."

"She obviously doesn't want them!" Ryu shouted.

"What's wrong with you? You act like she's your girlfriend or something!"

"Stop fucking saying that!" Ryu's temper rose drastically.

"Please don't fight!" Raine grabbed onto Ryu's arm, "I think it's thoughtful, and I'll take them."

"See?" Kurt handed the items over to Raine, "You need to relax."

Ryu glared at Kurt, "Whatever…"

Kurt crossed his arms, scowling at the younger teen. Ryu just shoved his hands in his pockets and turned his head to the side.

"I'm going downstairs," the sandy blonde grumbled and then made his way to the elevator.

Raine stood by Kurt's side and sighed.

"Did I do something wrong?"

Kurt's lips curved into a frown before directing his eyes to her, "No, he's just moody. Plus if he doesn't walk away he'll just start a fight and we don't need that right now."

"He wasn't like this earlier…"

"Yeah…he's a pain in the ass. I really can't understand him sometimes."

Raine looked towards the elevator; Ryu was long gone. She sighed, was it right for her to be traveling with two men she barely knew? While it was true that she had met Ryu a long time ago, she hardly knew anything about him.

Kurt placed his hand on top of her head startling her.

"Wanna go bikini shopping? I'm excellent at picking out these type of things," his mouth widened in a cocky smile.

"Sure, I suppose…" her mind was elsewhere.

* * *

><p>"Doctor Redwood?" Raine said after a while of them being completely silent while perusing through the bikini section. She had so far declined ever decision Kurt had made.<p>

"Yeah?" He questioned while rubbing his stubbly chin. He couldn't quite grasp what type of bathing suit she'd prefer.

"How did you and Ryu meet?"

He turned his head to her, maintaining the same position, and pondered what she had asked.

"I've known him since he was just a little kid. Damn stubborn bastard has always been like this. But, I don't know, guess I was the only person he could tolerate. I mean, I was his only friend for the longest time, and I didn't even like him all that much."

"So then why do you stick with him?"

"Why are you so damn curious? We just met and you're asking me all these ridiculous questions!" If Ryu was there, he would have told her to ignore Kurt because he was just being himself, but Ryu wasn't there and Raine didn't know nearly enough about Kurt to recognize that.

"My apologies…"

He sighed quickly realizing that Raine didn't understand what he meant, "As much of a pain in the ass as Ryu is, I like the kid, and he's helped me out of some sticky situations."

She had pulled a takini top off one of the racks and was examining it while he spoke. She turned to the older male and smiled. The two males heavily relied on each other whether they realized it or not, but this made her wonder if she would ever have that kind of connection with either of them, or if she would forever just be some sort baggage.

"That's a takini top," Kurt mentioned a bit surprised that she would go for that type of bathing suit.

The top was solid black except for the sides which were a bright blue-ish green, more so blue than green. She had found a matching bottom to go with it.

"I like this."

Kurt pursed his lips in disagreement. He could tell just by looking at her that she was physically fit and so there was no need for her to hide her body from the eyes of onlookers, well that was just his personal opinion.

"If that's really what you want…"

She just nodded her head.

* * *

><p>Ryu stood leant against the main counter in the Lobby. His arms were crossed tightly against his torso and he was scowling not at anything in particular, but customers felt like he was glaring at them. The employees wanted desperately to say something to him, but all of them knew whom he was and pissing off their boss' son didn't sound like a genuinely smart idea.<p>

Finally, Kurt and Raine made their way out of the elevator and over to the unpleasant blonde. He turned to them and sighed.

"Heya, you little shit!" Kurt greeted of so lovingly. He shoved his right hand into the blonde's stiff hair and shoved him backwards. This just made Ryu even more unpleasant.

"Um… I'm all set!" Raine announced as she cut in front of Kurt trying to deter a possible fight.

Ryu just stared at her as he calmed himself down. From what Raine could tell, it seemed that Kurt just hung around to piss off Ryu. Of course, that didn't seem too hard considering Ryu's short temper.

"Put them on the counter," he said while staring at her with his cold caramel eyes.

She did as she was told. The cashier came over almost immediately and started scanning the several items that the brunette girl had placed on the counter. Ryu walked over and dropped his store card on the counter. The cashier looked at it carefully before scanning it as well. The total came up to P0. The female cashier then handed Raine several paper bags with their printed logo and a shirtless male model on it.

The three then walked outside. Kurt placed his right hand above his eyes, as visor of sorts, to block the sunlight before turning to the younger two and asking what time it was.

Ryu took out his cell phone, wondering why Kurt hadn't done that in the first place, and showed him the time. Kurt was astounded when he saw that it was already 4PM.

"Damn, we were in there practically all day!" This made him thoroughly unhappy.

"I don't want to travel through the desert at night," Ryu stated, the sun would set within the hour.

"Well fine then, if you don't want to travel tonight then you're paying for the hotel room," Kurt declared mostly because he liked to exploit Ryu's money when he could.

Raine's stomach then grumbled rather loudly causing her face to turn bright red. Both males began to chuckle.

Ryu turned to Kurt, "Food first."

They then proceeded to a casual diner before heading off to the hotel room.

When they entered the room Raine stood there astounded.

"Do you always bathe yourself in such fine luxury?" Kurt wondered as he looked around the beautifully decorated red and white suite.

"Not generally," Ryu responded carrying one of the bags that Raine had from the store and his backpack from the other room he was staying in.

"This is beautiful!" Raine said in amazement as Sora ran over and jumped on one of the white sofas. "There's even a fireplace!"

"The bedroom to the left is Raine's and the room to the right is for you, Kurt."

"And where are you going to sleep?" Kurt wondered making his way over to the room that Ryu had chosen for him.

"Sofa," Ryu watched as Raine made her way, with her things, to the room on the left.

The girl opened the sliding glass door draped with silk curtains. Inside sat a queen sized bed with a red comforter, a flat screen tv, and some other luxuries. The room was covered in white roses in vases set out by the hotel staff.

"This room is mine?" She wondered as the two males came up behind her.

Ryu nodded.

"Yeah, it sure beats sleeping in a sleeping bag," Kurt joked unknown to him how Raine was living prior.

"I've never slept in anything other than a sleeping bag," she said and then entered the room.

The two males looked at each other baffled. Sora then jumped up on the bed and walked around in a circle before calling that spot his own. Raine sat her things down at the edge of the bed and wandered over to the window to see the magnificent view of Castelia City at night.

"So are you going out tonight?" Ryu wondered leaving Raine's doorway and watching Ember lay down in front of the fire.

"Nah," Kurt replied, "I'm going to get into the complimentary wine though!"

"You're paying for that then," Ryu shoved his hands into his pocket and wandered back over to the sofa.

Kurt complained journeying into his designated bedroom and shutting the door. Ryu walked over to the television and turned it on—noticing that there was a gaming system hooked to it. He snagged the controller and scanned the game collection. Finally deciding upon one, he popped the game into the system and took a cozy seat upon the sofa. Raine came out of her room a few minutes later wearing a pair of teal shorts and a tight grey T-shirt. In her hands was one of the black journals he had picked up for her the other day.

She looked to see what he was doing and wondered if it would be ok to sit on the other side of the sofa. He didn't even make a move to acknowledge her there, so she sat down opposite to him. She waited a bit to see if he was going to make conversation, but when that didn't happen she decided to say something.

"Is the Ultra Ball your favorite?" she wondered.

"Yeah, why?"

"Your piercing is an Ultra Ball."

"You're observant," He quickly glanced at her, but then turned his attention back to the game.

"Why not the Master Ball?"

"It's purple and pink."

She giggled at his bluntness, "I guess that's a good reason."

Realizing that the conversation was going nowhere, she leaned back on the sofa, opened a black spiral ringed journal, and flipped through it until she found where she had left off.

"What's that?" He wondered noticing it in his peripheral.

"Papa's journal. I read it every night; I must've read through it a hundred times," she smiled though she looked like she was holding back tears.

He paused the game and with his left hand he took the journal from her, once he realized that she was ok with it, and briefly looked at the page.

"If it makes you upset, why do you continue to read it?"

She lowered her eyes, "It temporarily makes me feel like he's still here with me."

He handed it back to her, "What about your mother's journal?"

"I haven't read it…"

"Why?"

"…because…" she sighed, "Aurora wasn't a mother. She was a dictator."

"Aren't all parents?" He joked without a change in tone, but when he saw that her facial expression had not changed he subsided.

"I don't think she ever loved me…"

It was surprising to hear that, but he was sure she was making it up, "I'm sure she did."

"No, you don't understand!" She shouted and then started crying.

He was shocked and sat there feeling guilty.

"Please don't cry," He held out his hand as if to touch her but curled in his glove-covered fingers and withdrew his hand. Perhaps it was best to leave her be.

"My apologies…" She wiped her eyes with the back of her right hand, "I could never bring myself to hate her no matter what she did to me, but she never once loved me, and that's why I don't want to read her journal. I'm sure the information she wrote is invaluable, but what she had to say about my existence terrifies me."

"I shouldn't have said anything."

She shook her head, "Don't worry about it."

"So…" he wanted so badly to change the subject or perhaps start playing his game again, but he felt like that would be inconsiderate, "tomorrow we're going to make our way to Nimbasa City. You'll stay at my house until we get going again. If that's ok."

She looked over at him.

"Hopefully Lloyd won't be there, but he probably will. You let me know if he bothers you."

She smiled, "I recall going over to your house once a long time ago."

"You have?" He wondered.

"You don't recall?"

He shook his head.

"We were kids…" she looked at the tv and then pulled out her pokéball. "You gave this to me for my eighth birthday."

He held out his hand and she carefully placed it within it. He then withdrew it to his body making sure to examine the thing. It was certainly showing its age, but was still in particularly good condition. He had no recollection of giving it to her, but as he stared at it, he thought back to when he was eight.

"_She has strange hair," He looked back at her with the same gaze._

He blinked a couple times wondering where that memory had come from. He couldn't quite recall the context.

Raine stood up and disappeared into her room before returning with a black picture album. She sat back down and started sifting through the pictures before stopping on a particular page. She passed the black, hard cover album to him and pointed out a specific picture.

He examined it noticing himself when he was younger. There was young Ryu with his arms crossed and a characteristic scowl upon his eight-year-old face. In the middle stood worried looking Raine and next to her was beaten and bloody Lloyd, Ryu's younger brother.

"_Raine, why don't you go and enjoy your time with Ryu and Lloyd?" Nos looked down at his seven-year-old daughter who was hugging his leg. He had never seen her so shy. _

_Before them stood Mr. and Mrs. Hi and in front of them were Ryu, who was making a sour face like he really didn't want to be there, and Lloyd, who had snot running out his bright red nose._

"_My you're a cute girl," Mrs. Hi said crouching behind her eldest son, "Now you two be nice to Raine, she's never been around other kids before."_

_This made Ryu stare at her with his piercing caramel eyes. Lloyd, on the other hand, just wiped his snot covered upper lip with his hand._

"_Papa, his eyes are making me feel uncomfortable…" Raine tugged on her father's blue jeans. _

_Mrs. Hi overheard her and grabbed Ryu's attention, "It's impolite to stare."_

"_She has strange hair," He looked back at her with the same gaze._

"_Try and get along with him," Nos told her._

_He then removed her from his leg and pushed her towards the young males. _

_Ryu crossed his arms and then turned to all the toys laid out for them. Lloyd had already made his way over and started stacking some blocks while sucking on his left thumb. Raine slowly made her way over as if they were scary monsters that were going to attack her at anytime, and she was trying to leave them undisturbed. _

_She sat down a bit away from the brothers and swirled her finger around on the carpet before she noticed little feet in her line of view. The tiny brunette raised her head and peered at the figure with her green eyes. Ryu stood there holding out a toy boat. He had a dissatisfied look upon his child face and he wasn't looking at her. _

_Her face lit up as she took the white and blue toy boat from the boy's hands. _

"_I appreciate it," She smiled kindly. _

"…" _He turned away from her and when he realized that she wasn't following him, he motioned for her to come over. _

_The little girl examined the toy boat thoroughly, she had never played with a toy before and the entire sensation was perplexing. Rotating it around in her hand, she couldn't quite grasp an understanding of something made from plastic. She looked up at the boy who was just a year older than her. He watched as she investigated the toy curiously. She then stood to her child feet and wandered over to where he had set up a small town with a dock. _

_Mrs. Hi smiled diligently, "It seems like they are getting along now."_

_Nos turned his attention to his daughter who seemed confused as to the purpose of pretending. She looked very out of place and Ryu was attempting to help her figure it all out. After a couple minutes she just started pushing the boat around, with her index finger, without any true intent. _

"_Seems so, but what's with Lloyd?" Nos wondered looking over at the snot-covered boy playing with blocks. _

_Mrs. Hi sighed, "Lloyd and Ryu don't get along, so it's probably best that they play separately." _

_Aurora took a sip of the steaming cup of green tea in her hands. The aroma was very relaxing, and she was enjoying the feeling of sitting on such luxurious furniture. The room in which they were sitting was grand; it had a few pieces of furniture over by the entrance, of which the adults were sitting, and the rest of the room lay barren, so that the children could play in the empty space. The orange sunlight pierced the wall of ceiling to floor glass windows and a cool breeze had captivated the curtains. _

"_So, Ryu will one day take over the family business, right?" Nos speculated. _

_Mr. Hi frowned, "That was the original intention, but I fear that Ryu will have no interest in such things."_

"_He's taken a particular interest in Pokémon; I'm certain he'll be a great trainer one day. His people skills are, however, lacking… to say in the least," Mrs. Hi said very displeased with a bit of worry. _

"_Well he is only eight," Nos chuckled, but it was not returned. _

_Mr. Hi shook his head, "The boy is rather arrogant, not saying that he doesn't deserve to be, but he is overly arrogant. He's also quite aggressive-"_

_And as he said that, they all turned to the children because of a scream. Ryu was on top of Lloyd in a sitting position and punching him repeatedly. All of the adults, excluding Aurora, jumped to their feet and ran over to the children. _

_Mr. Hi pulled Ryu off of Lloyd and Mrs. Hi tended to the bleeding child. Nos knelt before Raine to find out what had happened. _

"_What have I told you about beating up your brother?" Mr. Hi's tone was quite drastically angry. _

"…"

"_Papa, Ryu did that to give me back this-" Raine held up a tiny plastic boat, "Lloyd took it."_

_Nos turned to Mr. Hi who was paying attention to what the young girl had said._

"_Is this true?" He asked his son. _

"_He pushed her over and forced it from her hands," The blonde child replied. _

_Mr. Hi sighed, it was easy to tell that he was a bit conflicted with whatever thoughts he was thinking._

"_Ryu, you did the right thing; however, beating of your brother is strictly prohibited and you know this!" He rubbed his aged forehead, "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ground you."_

"_Papa!" Raine wholeheartedly objected. _

"_There's nothing we can do about it, Raine," Nos interceded. _

_Raine then wandered over to Ryu and smiled, "You have my gratitude."_

_Ryu stared at her puzzled as to what she meant, but returned her smile. Mr. Hi then grabbed him by the hand and began to lead him away when Nos remembered something._

"_Can I actually get a picture of Raine with the boys?" Nos wondered, "You see, I promised her that I'd put together a photo album of all the places she visits and all the people she meets."_

_Mr. Hi turned to Mrs. Hi who then smiled, "Let me clean Lloyd up and then certainly."_

She looked at him to see if he happened to recall anything, but he was hard to read. He passed the album back to her and watched as she closed it.

"It was you…"

She didn't quite know what he meant. Was he referring to the fact that it was she in the image or something else?

He scratched the top of his head with his left hand and then positioned his body towards her—his right leg propped on the sofa and his right arm leant against the back of it.

"I'm engaged," he told her which took her by surprise.

She raised her hands in a nervous defense, "I'm not hitting on you if that's what you think!"

He shook his head, "That's not what I meant."

She relaxed and placed her hands on her lap, "Then what did you-"

"I hate her!"

The change in tone was harsh and rather startling. Ember stood up and wandered over to Ryu's feet. He cleared his lap signaling to his partner that it was all right to jump up, and so the small Pokémon did and made himself comfortable on his human. Ryu began to pet him.

"When I was 15, I was informed that I was engaged prior to my current one. However, the engagement was never publically announced because something had happened to her. And then I thought about it, how was it that I was engaged to someone without ever knowing it?" He stared at her quizzically.

"You were never informed of it?" She wondered.

He shrugged while looking down at his partner again.

"Only explanation I can come up with."

She hesitated wanting to say the words on her lips, but, at the same time, she wanted him to finish what he was saying.

"Max said, 'she was a sweet girl, you would have really liked her. Your engagement was supposed to be announced when you were 12, but…she went missing'."

Raine began to giggle which made him stare at her funny. He then leaned forward and placed his left hand on top of her head.

"I still think you're strange," he smiled, the first time she had seen him do so.

"Back then, I didn't fully understand what they meant. It was after your father had sent you to your room and Lloyd had gone down for a name. When Aurora had proposed to your parents marriage well it was really all her idea. Papa practically choked on his drink. Anyway, your mother said it wouldn't be announced until you had turned 12, so Papa agreed for the time being. And that's all I know about it," Raine said casually as Ryu watched her. That explained why he never knew. She found it a bit funny.

"You knew this the entire time?"

She nodded her head.

"And you didn't say anything."

She frowned, "How would it sound if I said, 'Hi, I'm Raine Crystalline, we were engaged once'?"

He narrowed his eyes at her and then moved so his back was against the sofa and propped his head on the back.

"Weird…"

"Perhaps," she said with an immense amount of sarcasm.

"So I have a question for you," He turned his head to face her. "Where did you get Sora?"

It took her a second to adjust to the new conversation. "I didn't steal him if that's what you mean."

"No, I didn't think you had. He'd certainly wouldn't stick with you if you did."

"My parents' had an Umbreon named Blitz and an Espeon. After they died, I took them with me and five years ago they had Sora. Two years later, they both died and now Sora is all I have left." She touched the cover of the journal while thinking of her father who she had not seen in a while and of Suicune who had left her the night prior.

She recalled the death of Blitz and the Espeon. They had come down with some sort of disease that needed special medication, but she couldn't afford it, so she had to watch them die. It was heart wrenching, but she was grateful to Sora for keeping her company.

"When your parents died why didn't you come seek shelter at my house? My parents would have taken you in."

"I wasn't thinking… They had just died and I freaked out," she looked at him for a response but none was there, "Anyway, I'm sleepy. I'll see you in the morning."

"Night."

"Goodnight."

* * *

><p>"Wow, when you said desert I didn't actually think you meant a desert!" Raine held up her left hand to stop her hair from flying into her face. "Is there any bodies of water around here?"<p>

The desert was unusually windy that day and sand was flying all around them.

Ryu and Kurt stared at each other confused by Raine's question.

"It's a desert, of course their isn't any water around here!" Kurt shouted as if she were stupid.

Ryu groaned. He hated Route 4, but what he hated even more was the fact that he was going to have to fight every trainer they came across, which were all of lower rank than him. Though he knew that it would be excellent training.

"Well, shall we trudge through this shit and get home?" Kurt wondered as he put on his sunglasses still hung-over from the prior night.

"But…um…what about Rainbow Valley? It's not to far from here. We could certainly make our way through there," She proposed.

Kurt shook his head, "That would take us out of the way and we can't reach Nimbasa City through there."

She fiddled with her fingers looking a bit antsy. It was clear that something was bothering her, but Kurt didn't care enough to ask, and Ryu didn't want to bring up anymore of her bad memories, so he also decided not to ask.

When she realized that the conversation was going nowhere, she curiously pointed to a little red Pokémon that was wandering around in front of them.

"What's that?" She wondered.

"That's a Darumaka," Ryu said noticing the Pokémon as she had. He walked over to her and held out his pokédex. "Here."

She took it from him and held it up to the tiny Pokémon.

It read: "Darumaka, the Zen Charm Pokémon. When asleep, even when pushed or pulled, it cannot be knocked over."

It waddled its way over to them and held out its hand to Kurt. The tall male crossed his arms and looked up.

"I'm not going to feed it!"

Raine crouched down and held her fingerless glove covered hand out. The Darumaka walked over and bit her index finger.

"Ow!" She shouted as her finger began to bleed.

Sora began to growl at the little Darumaka as it brought its arms and legs into its body.

"I want it!" Ryu smiled arrogantly as he pulled out an Ultra Ball and enlarged it.

"Sora, use Bite!" Raine shouted certainly displeased by the Pokémon's actions.

The Umbreon launched itself off its two hind legs and attacked the wobbling egg shaped Darumaka.

Ryu threw the pokéball at the unsuspecting Darumaka and waited as it rocked back and forth.

"Don't you think using an Ultra Ball is a bit of an overkill?" Kurt wondered.

"If you have it, use it," Ryu remarked.

The pokéball sat still on the ground and he picked it up.

"Well, let's get going. Are you going to be ok, Raine?" Kurt wondered as the girl stood up with her finger in her mouth.

"Yeah, I'll be fine…"

* * *

><p>"Welcome home, Master Ryu," greeted the butler with a thin boney face and a thick grey mustache that covered his mouth. He had squinty eyes.<p>

"Max?" Raine said as she made her way into the mansion. She instantly recognized the elder man.

"My word! Raine Crystalline is that really you?" The butler circled the girl in question. "It really is you!"

"Have you been well?" Raine wondered as Max embraced her.

"Certainly, but the question is how have you been?" Max was truly astounded by the fact that she was alive. "My word! Where did you ever find Ms. Crystalline?"

"Castelia," Ryu adjusted his bag and headed for the stairs.

"Will you be staying here?"

"For a bit, yes!" She was incredibly happy to see such a familiar face. Max had often babysat her when she was a child.

"Well go get yourself settled in, then come see me and we'll speak."

"Certainly!"

* * *

><p><strong>And there you go. I changed a couple things in the last two chapters, nothing too major. <strong>

**-Aninika**


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